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news.Protiva Biotherapeutics has announced that it will withhold its consent and pursue the lawsuit it filed against Inex Pharmaceuticals in March to prevent an improper transfer of Protiva's agreements with Inex and other assets into a new company called Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.
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In March 2006, Protiva filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against Inex Pharmaceuticals, Inex’ CEO, and three Inex directors who also served as Protiva directors.
The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that these directors breached their duty to act in Protiva’s best interests and made material misrepresentations to Protiva. The suit also claims Protiva has suffered and will suffer irreparable harm, loss, damage and expense by reason of Inex’s wrongful breach and repudiation of the Inex-Protiva agreements.
“Our agreements with Inex plainly state that Inex requires Protiva’s consent if it wishes to assign them to another party, as it appears Inex is proposing to do,” said Mark Murray, Protiva’s president and CEO. “We have refused to provide that consent and will continue to pursue the available legal remedies to prevent this transaction from happening.”
Inex recently issued a press release stating that it intends to complete the spin-out by the end of September 2006. However, given the pending litigation, it seems this timeline could be unrealistic.
The litigation is now entering the discovery phase, which is expected to last several months.