DELRAY BEACH, FL – The former CEO of the VeriChip Corporation has regained control of the company in a stock purchase.
Scott R. Silverman purchased 5.4 million shares of common stock in VeriChip in November through his own company, R&R Consulting Partners, LLC, from the Digital Angel Corporation. The purchase gives Silverman control of 6.2 million shares, or 53 percent of the company, and returns him to the role of chairman of the company’s board of directors.
Silverman, who left the company in May 2008, said he made the move because he didn’t like the company’s current outlook.
“The prior controlling stockholder of the company preferred a different path for the company, which would have jeopardized the value of our FDA-cleared, first-of-a-kind medical device for patient identification,” he said in a press release. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
VeriChip, based in Delray Beach, Fla., was created by Digital Angel to market and sell radio frequency identification (RFID) chips for healthcare. The company went public in February of 2007. Silverman, a former CEO of Applied Digital Solutions, was appointed CEO of VeriChip in December of 2006.
VeriChip and Digital Angel secured a patent for the embedded bio-sensor chip in October 2006 and forged an agreement in September 2007 to develop, with RECEPTORS LLC, a prototype renewable glucose sensor to use in conjunction with VeriChip’s RFID microchips. Both companies recently announced the completion of phase one testing of the In Vivo Glucose Sensing RFID Microchip.
“We are not only focused on current opportunities for patient identification within our VeriMed Health Link business, but also on the future applications of RFID in healthcare,” Silverman said. “The glucose sensor is a promising example, combining a unique application of the technology and an extremely valuable market. While there is much more to do, development of the binding environment was a big step towards reaching that future.”
In a separate transaction related to Silverman’s wresting control of the company, VeriChip has purchased from Digital Angel all patents related to an embedded biosensor system for use in humans, as well as the assignment of any of Digital Angel’s rights under a development agreement related to an implantable glucose-sensing microchip. VeriChip also acquired covenants from Digital Angel and a subsidiary to use Digital Angel’s intellectual property in developing the VeriMed Health Link business without payment of ongoing royalties.
