Home Economy Economic Activity SEC filing of the week: Ocean Biomedical faces loss of licensing agreements

SEC filing of the week: Ocean Biomedical faces loss of licensing agreements

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PBN Staff

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06/20/2025

Ocean-Biomedical Logo — OCEAN BIOMEDICAL Inc. is facing the termination of licensing agreements for technologies developed at Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital.

PROVIDENCE – Ocean Biomedical Inc. is facing the termination of licensing agreements for technologies developed at Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital. In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 12, Ocean Biomedical reported Elkurt Inc. notified the Rhode Island-based company on June 9 that a notice of the termination of

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PROVIDENCE – Ocean Biomedical Inc. is facing the termination of licensing agreements for technologies developed at Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital. In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 12, Ocean Biomedical reported Elkurt Inc. notified the Rhode Island-based company on June 9 that a notice of the termination of four licensing agreements from the Elias laboratory at Brown in place since 2022, one from the Kurtis laboratory in place since September 2022 and another licensing agreement with Elkurt for Rhode Island Hospital technologies originally in place since February 2020. Elkurt – a privately held intellectual property licensing company, said it is terminating the licensing agreements due to Ocean Biomedcial’s failure to meet payment obligations in the amount of $612,518, failure to meet diligent development obligations and failure to achieve milestones. Elkurt will terminate the licenses if Ocean Biomedical fails to resolve the issues by the beginning of July. On May 30, Ocean Biomedical reported a loss of $8.42 million in the first quarter. Ocean Biomedical has not generated any revenue since its inception in 2018 and said that it does not expect to generate revenue from the sale of products in the foreseeable future, according to its first quarter filing. The company was founded by Dr. Jack Elias, former dean of Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School; Dr. Jonathan "Jake" Kurtis, chairman of pathology and laboratory medicine at Brown; and digital health entrepreneur Chirinjeev Kathuria. Ocean Biomedical, which went public in February 2023, describes itself as a “medical research innovation incubator” dedicated to advancing innovative treatments for cancer, infectious diseases and fibrosis. Kurtis and Elias are also listed as Elkurt officers. On March 28, five of nine Ocean Biomedical’s board of directors stepped down, including CEO Michelle Berrey, former Colorado Gov. William Owens, entrepreneur Suren Ajjarpum and Amy Griffith. Elias also did not seek reelection at the meeting. According to the company’s filing with the SEC on April 1, former CEO Elizabeth Ng, Michael Peterson, Kathuria and Kurtis were each elected to the board of directors. However, in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 22, Kurtis notified the company of his immediate resignation to pursue other interests. Kathuria was listed as chairman on the quarterly filing. On April 22, Ocean Biomedical was delisted on the Nasdaq exchange and expanded its operations to include power-infrastructure development and a cryptocurrency treasury strategy that included blockchain tokens Bitcoin and Solana.