Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Ironwood, chief scientific officer slapped with a $500M lawsuit

By Lori Valigra, Mass High Tech correspondent

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cambridge biotech company focused on irritable bowel syndrome, has been hit with a lawsuit seeking $500 million in damages by Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: SGYPD, SGYPU), a New York developer of drugs for gastrointestinal disorders and diseases.

Synergy said in a press release today that it filed the lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court against Ironwood and its chief scientific officer and senior VP of R&D Mark Currie. At press time, Ironwood and Synergy had not returned requests from Mass High Tech for comment on the lawsuit and the nature of the patent.

The suit alleges that after European patent 1,379,224 was granted to Synergy, but prior to its issuance, Ironwood and Currie opposed the patent before the European Patent Office. It also alleges that they presented to the European Patent Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office data and arguments that were false, contradictory, inaccurate and misleading.

In its complaint, Synergy accuses Ironwood and Currie of, among other things, unfair competition, fraud and unjust enrichment. It is seeking $500 million in actual and punitive damages.

According to Ironwood’s website, Currie has led the company’s R&D efforts since joining it in 2002. Before that, he directed cardiovascular and central nervous system disease research as vice president of discovery research at Sepracor Inc. of Marlborough, now known as Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and owned by Japan’s Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. Ltd. Before that, he initiated, built and led discovery pharmacology and served as director of arthritis and inflammation at Monsanto Company.