LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Elena Medo, Founder of Medolac® Laboratories, an Oregon-based human milk nutritionals startup, is the target of a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Prolacta® Bioscience .
Medo founded Prolacta in 1999 and as its first CEO, raised $23 million in venture capital before leaving the company in early 2009. Later she started a public benefit corporation with the goal of ending the shortage of human donor milk by utilizing high volume professional food processing methods resulting in a more affordable donor milk product. After five years of research and development, Medo’s efforts have resulted in Co-Op Donor Milk, the first commercially sterile human breast milk that can be stored unopened at room temperature for up to 3 years. Since introducing Co-op Donor Milk last fall, hospitals across the country have adopted its use, citing the reduction of risk among many other benefits. “I’m disappointed and saddened that Prolacta’s Board of Directors would support this frivolous lawsuit,” Elena Medo commented. Medo’s attorney added, “This kind of lawsuit is a technique some companies use to limit their competition. The legal system becomes a tool to bury a competitor in paperwork and legal fees to keep them focused on defending themselves and away from growing their company. In this case, Prolacta has chosen to pick on a registered public benefit corporation that is supplying life-saving human donor milk to preterm infants, many who have not had access to donor milk until now. Prolacta cannot support the entire need for human milk but seeks to monopolize this small industry through unmeritorious litigation.”
According to the Small Business Administration, 52% of lawsuits target small businesses like Medolac. Abusive lawsuits not only hamper competition, but often impede the introduction of innovation in the marketplace and can act as a barrier to access for patients, which in this case includes the most vulnerable, medically fragile infants.
“We refuse to be intimidated, in fact this lawsuit has strengthened our resolve to solve the shortage that is costing some babies their lives,” said Medo. “We believe this lawsuit is frivolous and totally without merit and implore the legal system to help us get on with the crucial work of saving lives.”
For more information about Medolac Laboratories, please visit us at www.medolac.com.
About Medolac Laboratories, a public benefit corporation:
Medolac is committed to ending the global shortage of human donor milk and introduced the first commercially sterile human donor milk which is currently being used by hospitals across the United States. The company specializes in innovative, human donor milk products for clinical use, applying proprietary biopharmaceutical processing methods that preserve amino acids as well as many of the immune components in human milk. As a public benefit corporation dedicated to social impact, our mission is to make human milk the standard of care for premature and sick infants by increasing the supply and access to donor milk. Medolac Laboratories is a Delaware registered public benefit corporation headquartered at Lake Oswego, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. For more information, visit www.medolac.com.
