Celltex is sued by former employee

It’s only Wednesday and it’s already been a big, bumpy week for Texas stem cell company, Celltex.

On Monday, the FDA report of their two-week visit to/audit of Celltex became public thanks to the efforts of Dr. Leigh Turner and Houston Chronicle reporter, Todd Ackerman.

Now there is more complicated news for the company. A lawsuit was filed against Celltex 4 days ago. Interesting it was also apparently immediately settled under confidential terms.

The case was described as related to the “Fair Labor Standards Act”. The plaintiff was Jennifer M. Novak. It was filed in the Western District Court of Texas. From the court documents (you can read the original complaint here) it seems Ms. Novak and Celltex had a dispute over her pay and her allegedly working more than 40 hours/week.

Who is Jennifer Novak?

Interestingly, according to the blog of a self-reported Celltex patient, Debbie Bertrand, Jennifer Novak is (or was) a nurse at Celltex. The second picture down on that website shows four people with the person on the far left identified as Ms. Novak.

A Nature piece on Celltex indicated that Ms. Novak was a key member of the Celltex team as Bertrand’s doctor, neurologist Jamshid Lofti, said that patients signed up for treatment via Celltex by “contacting Novak”.

Ms. Novak if you are out there reading this blog, I’d like to talk to you. Not about your court case, but rather more generally your experiences and thoughts on the stem cell field. knoepfler@ucdavis.edu