Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Obtains Partial Dismissal Of Claims In New York

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Navidea” or the “Company”), a company focused on the development of precision immunodiagnostic agents and immunotherapeutics, today announced that on December 26, 2019, the United States District Court, Southern District of New York (the “Court”) ruled on several motions related to Navidea and its majority-owned subsidiary, Macrophage Therapeutics, Inc. (“MT”) and Dr. Michael Goldberg that substantially limited the claims that Dr. Goldberg can pursue against Navidea and MT.

The Court found that certain portions of Dr. Goldberg’s counterclaims against Navidea and third-party claims against Macrophage failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Specifically, the Court ruled that actions taken by Navidea and MT, including reconstituting the MT Board, replacing Dr. Goldberg with Jed A. Latkin as Chief Executive Officer of MT, terminating the sublicense between Navidea and MT, terminating certain research projects, and allowing MT intellectual property to revert back to Navidea, were not breaches of an August 2018 Agreement between Navidea, MT and Dr. Goldberg.

The Court also rejected Dr. Goldberg’s claim for wrongful termination as Chief Executive Officer of MT. In addition, the Court found that Dr. Goldberg lacked standing to seek injunctive relief to force the removal of Dr. Claudine Bruck and Michael Rice from MT’s Board of Directors, to invalidate all actions taken by the MT Board on or after November 29, 2018 (the date upon which Dr. Bruck and Mr. Rice were appointed by Navidea to the Board of MT), or to reinstate the terminated sublicense between Navidea and MT.

In addition, the Court found Navidea’s breach of fiduciary duty claim against Dr. Goldberg for conduct occurring more than three years prior to the filing of the complaint to be time-barred and that Dr. Goldberg is entitled to an advancement of attorneys’ fees solely with respect to that claim.

The Court stated that both Navidea and Dr. Goldberg may file motions for leave to amend by January 31, 2020.-Business Wire