KANNAPOLIS – Product Quest Manufacturing LLC, which abruptly ceased operations at a drug manufacturing facility in Kannapolis, North Carolina, earlier this month, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection, according to a press release on Friday.
The Kannapolis facility lost multiple customers in August, and the company determined that it was not generating enough cash to sustain its operations.
In July, the company’s Daytona, Florida, facility ceased operations after problems were uncovered and became public. This led to an increase in costs associated with the Kannapolis plant and the financial condition of the Kannapolis facility began to decline, the company said.
The company had been negotiating with its senior secured lenders regarding potential additional financing to fund the operations at the Kannapolis facility while it found a potential buyer for that facility. Its lenders were unwilling to advance any more funds, the company said.
WSOC-TV in Charlotte reported that hundreds of Kannapolis employees have lost their jobs. In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent a letter to the company about multiple violations it found at the Kannapolis facility.
Product Quest issued a recall last month of the CVS Health 12-Hour Sinus Relief Nasal Mist it produces after it was found to be contaminated.
The company filed its bankruptcy petition in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Product Quest manufactured primarily over-the-counter drugs and cosmetics, as well as some prescription drugs and animal health products.
John Regan, the CEO of Product Quest, founded the company 22 years ago in his garage.
This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism.
