SEC Company Response from ELITE PHARMACEUTICALS (ELTP) — Apr 14, 2009
ELITE PHARMACEUTICALS INC /NV/ (ELTP) (CIK 0001053369)
Date: April 14, 2009 · CIK: 0001053369 · Accession: 0000930413-09-002020
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File numbers found in text: 001-15697
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April 14, 2009
AS FILED ON EDGAR AND
VIA FACSIMILE
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
Attn: Sasha Singh Parikh, Staff Accountant
100 F Street, N.E., Mail Stop 6010
Washington, DC 20549
Re:
Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Item 4.01 of Form 8-K/A, filed March 12, 2009
File No. 001-15697
Dear Ms. Parikh:
On behalf of our client, Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), we transmit simultaneously herewith
for filing under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), by means of the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, the Company’s
Form 8-K/A (the “Second Amended Filing”) amending the Form 8-K/A filed by the Company on March 12, 2009 (File No. 001-15697) (the “Amended
Filing”) which amended the Current Report on Form 8-K originally filed by the Company on February 19, 2009 (the “Original Filing”) and a separate
acknowledgement letter from the Company. All capitalized terms used, but not otherwise defined, herein shall have the respective definitions assigned thereto in the Second Amended Filing.
We are in receipt of your letter addressed to the Company, dated March 16, 2009 (the “Comment Letter”), which you sent on behalf of the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”). Set forth below is the response
of the Company to each of the comments set forth in the Comment Letter, numbered to correspond thereto.
Comment
Number
Response
to Comment
1.
On January 1, 2009, Miller
Ellin & Company, LLP (“Miller
Ellin”), the Company’s former
independent accountant, merged with and into Rosen Seymour Shapss Martin & Company LLP
(the “Merger”),
the Company’s current independent accountant (“Rosen
Seymour”). Upon the occurrence of
the Merger, Miller Ellin effectively resigned, and Rosen Seymour succeeded
Miller Ellin, as the Company’s independent accountant. The Company
has added a clarifying disclosure in the Second Amended Filing in accordance
with the foregoing, which is reproduced at the end of this response
for your convenience.
The Company also amended
its disclosure under Item 4.01 to disclose information regarding the
Merger provided to the Company by Rosen Seymour subsequent to the date
of filing of the Amended Filing. Specifically, the Company disclosed
in the Amended Filing, as advised by Rosen Seymour, that Rosen Seymour
was “the resulting surviving legal entity” of the Merger.
However, the Company has since been advised by Rosen Seymour that,
following the Merger, Miller Ellin actually continued, and continues,
to exist as a separate legal entity for certain specified purposes
agreed upon between Miller Ellin and Rosen Seymour pursuant to the
terms of their merger agreement, which do not involve the Company or
affect the disclosures made by the Company under Item 4.01 of Form
8-K. In light of the foregoing information, however, Company has amended
its disclosure by removing the language stating that Rosen Seymour
was “the resulting surviving legal entity” of the Merger
and replacing it with language that more accurately describes the effect
of the Merger on Miller Ellin and Rosen Seymour pursuant to the terms
of their agreement.
For your convenience, the Company has
reproduced below the first paragraph of the Second Amended Filing in
which the above described disclosures appear, with such disclosures highlighted
in italics.
Effective
January 1, 2009, Miller, Ellin & Company, LLP (“Miller
Ellin”), the independent
accountant of Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Registrant”),
and the principal accountant engaged to audit the Registrant’s
financial statements, consummated a merger (the “Merger”)
of its practice into the practice of Rosen Seymour Shapss Martin & Company
LLP (“Rosen Seymour”),
with Rosen Seymour succeeding to the business and operations of Miller
Ellin, subject to certain conditions
and exceptions, as agreed upon by the parties under the terms of the
Merger. Upon consummation of the
Merger on January 1, 2009, Miller
Ellin effectively resigned as the Registrant’s independent accountant,
and Rosen Seymour, pursuant to the terms of its agreement with Miller
Ellin, became the Registrant’s new independent accountant and
principal accountant to audit its financial statements, as the successor
in interest of Miller Ellin. On
February 19, 2009, the foregoing changes were formally unanimously
ratified and approved by the Audit Committee of the Registrant’s
Board of Directors (the “Audit
Committee”).
2.
The Company has amended its disclosure
in the Second Amended Filing in accordance with your comment.
3.
The Company has noted
your comment and, before offering its response, respectfully requests
the Commission to note that the review for which the Company’s
independent accountant was engaged was not, as indicated in your comment,
in respect of the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting
generally. Rather, the scope of the review was limited to a review
of the revised accounting procedures and internal controls over expenditures
and expense reimbursement (the “Internal
Controls”) implemented by the Audit
Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Audit
Committee”) in response to certain
events described in Prior Reports (as defined below) and in the Company’s
response to comment no. 4 of the Comment Letter set out below. As previously
disclosed by the Company in its Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the
year ended March 31, 2008, filed with the Commission on January 16,
2009, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period
ended December 31, 2008, filed with the Commission on February 17,
2009 (collectively, the “Prior Reports”),
Rosen Seymour completed its review of the Internal Controls on January
23, 2009, and concluded that the Internal Controls implemented by the
Audit Committee are effective.
As
of the date hereof, the Company has not received any written report
relating to Rosen Seymour’s review of the Company’s Internal
Controls.
4.
As previously disclosed
by the Company in the Prior Reports, upon learning that certain expenses
had been reimbursed to Bernard J. Berk, the Company’s former President,
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, without receipt
by the Company of adequate substantiation of such expenses, the Audit
Committee investigated the Company’s then-effective accounting
procedures and internal controls over expenditures and expense reimbursement
and, on the basis thereof, took such remedial measures as deemed necessary
to address any deficiencies therein, which included establishment and
implementation of the Internal Controls.
As an added precautionary
measure, the Audit Committee decided to engage the Company’s independent
accountant to conduct an independent review of the Internal Controls
for effectiveness. On the date of such engagement, November 26, 2008,
the Company’s independent accountant was Miller Ellin. However,
the accounting professionals at Miller Ellin who would be handling
such review decided, given the proximity in time to the anticipated
Merger completion date, to postpone the review until after consummation
of the Merger. Shortly after consummation of the Merger, the same accounting
professionals, now employed by Rosen Seymour, conducted the review
of the Internal Controls, as indicated above in the Company’s
response to comment no. 3 of the Comment Letter.
Because the review of the Internal Controls
was not commenced until after the Merger completion date, at which point
the business and operations of Miller Ellin had merged with and into
that of Rosen Seymour, the Company received no views, oral or written,
from Miller Ellin regarding the subject matter covered by such review.
5.
The Company
has obtained and filed as an exhibit to the Second Amended Filing an
updated letter from its former accountant stating whether it agrees
with the disclosures made in the Second Amended Filing. The Company
has also obtained and filed as an exhibit to the Second Amended Filing
an updated letter from its current accountant stating whether it agrees
with the disclosures made in the Second Amended Filing.
Please contact the undersigned, at (212) 209-3059, if we may be of further assistance regarding the above matters.
Very truly yours,
/s/ Louis Smookler
Louis Smookler, Esq.