The quiet end of Halvard & Pike Apothecary of Portland, Maine

Halvard & Pike Apothecary of Portland, Maine has ceased trading after 6 years, ending an operation that at its largest employed a few dozen people and served, on its own account, several thousand patients a month. The closure follows the resolution of the shortage listing on which a substantial share of its volume depended, and was announced to customers by email with 27 days’ notice.

At its peak the operation ran two sterile suites, held a state licence in 6 jurisdictions, and published a catalogue of preparations that ran to several dozen items. Staff were given 27 days’ notice. The Journal has spoken to three former employees, none of whom would be quoted by name while severance discussions continued.

The administrators’ report records the principal liabilities as lease obligations on the facility, equipment finance, and customer deposits. Recovery for unsecured creditors is estimated at nil. The report is silent on what happens to the batch records, which is the question the Journal has asked.

Customer deposits held in a general operating account are the recurring feature of these administrations. It is lawful in most jurisdictions and it means that in a failure the customer is financing the wind-down. Readers who prepay should understand which of those they are doing.

"I had four weeks to move people who had been stable for a year," said Dr Wenjun Xie, process chemist and peptide manufacturing consultant. "Two of them are not on anything now."

"I had four weeks to move people who had been stable for a year," said Dr Adaeze Nwafor, consultant endocrinologist, Leeds. "Two of them are not on anything now."

This closure has been added to the department’s running index, which records the operation, the dates, the cause, and what happened to open orders.