Pharmacy Daily | Compounding contempt case in court

A falling out between two pharmacists who studied together at Sydney University in 2002 has led to a contempt of court judgement over a pharmacy compounding software program, amid allegations of the "deliberate frustration of execution of search orders".

The long-running case between parties associated with Nicholas Bova and Alexander Corry centres on a company called NHB Enterprises which trades as Bova Compounding Chemist, claiming to be "Australia's largest veterinary compounding business".

While a hearing in the contempt of court case took place Jul-Sep last year, the judgement was only handed down two weeks ago.

Corry was employed by NHB from 2008 until 2017 and was the company's Chief Operations Officer.

However towards the end of 2016 he also became a Director and shareholder of Medicina Pty Ltd which traded under the name of NexGen Pharma, in competition with NHB/Bova.

Previous court action by Bova against Corry alleged various breaches of statutory, contractual, fiduciary and equitable obligations in relation to his departure from the company, but ultimately was settled via mediation and a "Deed of Settlement and Release" involving a $1 million payment, a non-compete agreement and the return of key software and databases of formulations and standard operating procedures.

However later a former NexGen employee testified that Corry still had a copy of the software on his laptop, resulting in further court action brought by NHB/Bova.

This included an order permitting a search to be carried out in Feb 2019 at the NexGen business premises as well as Corry's home.

Evidence tendered during the hearing alleged that while the search of the Corry residence was under way, employees at the NexGen office were warned of an approaching raid, and attempted to hide computer equipment and documents by taking them to a neighbouring business.

The latest judgement found that Corry was in contempt of the previous court orders because he had retained and used confidential information owned by Bova, but dismissed a claim that he had wilfully directed the removal of items from the NexGen premises.

NHB/Bova are seeking penalties, with any proposed directions as to a penalty hearing to be served to the court by 20 Jul.