With Enemies Aplenty, PixarBio Takes Another Shot at InVivo

PixarBio appears to have plenty of legal foes already, including a disgruntled employee demanding unpaid wages, former landlords trying to collect $1.8 million in unpaid rent, a former executive of the company, a lender, and the SEC. But that isn't stopping the company from taking another shot at what is perhaps its biggest enemy of all, InVivo Therapeutics. In a recent regulatory filing with the SEC, PixarBio said it plans to sue InVivo Therapeutics for libel and for the patent rights to the company's scaffold device. PixarBio and its CEO Frank Reynolds attempted a hostile takeover of InVivo last year, the company that Reynolds abruptly quit three years earlier. The takeover was unsuccessful and InVivo management seemed baffled by it. In the rather lengthy bid, Reynolds not-so-subtly tied himself to President Donald Trump (who at the time was still campaigning for the job) as a "fellow Wharton alumni" and said he wanted to "make U.S. pharma great again." Reynolds was CEO of InVivo Therapeutics for about eight years until he walked away without warning in August 2013, citing a medical condition. A co-founder of the company, Reynolds also served as its CFO and board chairman. Just three months after leaving InVivo he formed PixarBio. Around the same time, InVivo sued Reynolds for alleged breaches of fiduciary duties, breach of contract, conversion, misappropriation of corporate assets, unjust enrichment, and corporate waste. Reynolds countered with a lawsuit of his own,...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Medical Device Business Source Type: news