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Providence Biopharma, Ocean Biomedical, Notified of Termination of License Agreements with Brown University, RI Hospital
Ocean Biomedical, a Providence company founded in 2019 and associated with Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital Technologies, received a termination notice for several technology licenses from Elkurt, Inc. The termination was due to alleged breaches, including payment failures and unmet development milestones.
On June 9, 2025, Ocean Biomedical, Inc. received a termination notice from Elkurt, Inc. regarding several license agreements for technologies developed at Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital Technologies. These agreements, originally effective from 2020, have undergone numerous amendments, with the latest being in late 2023.
The termination was due to alleged material breaches by Ocean Biomedical, including failure to meet payment obligations, diligent development efforts, and achieving milestones as required by the licenses. Elkurt’s notice also mentioned that if the breaches are not cured within 30 days, the licenses will be terminated, which could impact Ocean’s operations significantly.
What went wrong?
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Missed payments
Ocean failed to pay $612,581.16 plus patent-related fees as required under the licensing agreements -
Lack of development effort
Elkurt noted there has been no substantive product development under the licensed technologies, violating obligations to use “commercially reasonable efforts” -
Milestone failures
The company missed critical deadlines, including filing an IND (Investigational New Drug application) by June 30, 2024—and others by June 30, 2025 -
Cascading license termination
Elkurt cites that Brown University itself has terminated its upstream licenses to Elkurt (with a 30-day cure window from May 31, 2025). If Brown’s licenses aren’t cured, that further voids Ocean’s sublicenses
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Ocean Biomedical ended 2024 with zero revenue and a net loss of $9.5 million, with multiple lawsuits and delisting threats already looming
What happens next?
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30‑day cure period: Ocean has until early July 2025 to remedy the breaches (e.g. pay dues, restart development). Failure means immediate termination of all sublicenses
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Nasdaq suspension: The company’s stock (OCEA) and warrants (OCEAW) had already been suspended from Nasdaq due to ongoing issues
Ocean Biomedical—headquartered in Providence—is now in a critical situation:
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Facing loss of core biotech licenses,
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Under financial strain with significant unpaid debts,
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And with a tight window to recover or risk irreversible shutdown of its core programs.
About Ocean Biomedical, Inc. – a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering and developing therapeutic products in oncology, fibrosis, infectious diseases, and inflammation. The company is developing mono-specific and bi-specific humanized monoclonal antibodies (mAb) product candidates targeting Chi3l1 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma multiforme; and a small molecule product candidate targeting Chit1 for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome.
It is also developing three product candidates based on the WPDS platform, including a malaria vaccine candidate; a humanized mAb malaria therapeutic candidate targeting Plasmodium falciparum glutamic-acid-rich protein (PfGARP); and a small molecule malaria therapeutic candidate targeting PfGARP, as well as a product candidate for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients.
The company was incorporated in 2019 and is based in Providence, Rhode Island.Providence’s Ocean Biomedical, Tied to Brown and RIH, Given 30 Days to Cure Alleged Breaches
About Elkurt, Inc.
Elkurt is a Rhode Island-based company, incorporated in 2019, that licenses intellectual property and sub-licenses it to other companies. Elkurt is also involved in an exclusive licensing agreement with Ocean Biomedical, focusing on malaria vaccine and antibody technologies. The company’s founders include Jack A. Elias, M.D. and Jonathan Kurtis, M.D., Ph.D., both affiliated with Brown University