A multimillion-dollar legal battle has reignited as FS Medical Supplies LLC escalates claims that Tanner Pharma Group secretly cut it out of a $1.25 billion deal with the U.K. government for COVID-19 test kits.
FS Medical filed a fresh complaint Tuesday in North Carolina federal court, reinforcing allegations already made in an ongoing lawsuit in the same district. At stake: $387 million in lost profits that FS Medical says Tanner Pharma wrongfully kept by covertly securing an exclusive contract.
Jurisdiction Battle Could Upend Litigation
The new filing comes as Tanner Pharma and its executives—founder Banks Bourne and shareholder Molly Bourne—seek to dismiss the initial lawsuit. Their argument? A recently discovered legal technicality.
Tanner Pharma claims that one of FS Medical’s owners was a Chinese citizen, which, under federal diversity laws, could void the court’s jurisdiction. FS Medical says it only learned of this issue last week and has since transferred ownership to a U.S. citizen—but not before Tanner Pharma attempted to get the case thrown out.
