SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – A Bay Area medical device company known for developing a blood filter that former patients claim was a “dangerous medical experiment” will not have to face racketeering, wrongful death and other claims.
U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney discharged civil RICO, conspiracy, negligence, battery, and civil RICO wrongful death claims filed in March 2025 against ExThera Medical Corporation, which is accused by former patients of falsely marketing its “ONCObind” treatment as a “medical miracle” and a way to cure metastatic cancer.
Chesney, a Bill Clinton appointee, said the plaintiffs did not show enough of a connection between ExThera’s recommendations to undergo treatment and the plaintiffs’ worsening condition, or that the patients would have survived their cancer had they not undergone ExThera treatment.
“Plaintiffs have not alleged, for example, facts showing that plaintiffs would not have suffered such aggravating conditions had they not pursued a different course of treatment or received the allegedly inadequate medical care at the Antigua clinic,” she wrote in Thursday’s ruling.
As to the plaintiffs’ RICO claims against ExThera, Chesney found that the company’s reported acts of mail and wire fraud over the eight-month period “fall short of the necessary time period” to prove a “pattern of racketeering activity.”
The plaintiffs also failed to prove a threat of ongoing racketeering activity, she said, as the company’s continued offer of the ONCObind procedure itself “fails to meet the requisite showing of fraud.”
However, the company remains on the hook for claims of fraud and emotional distress.
Chesney rejected ExThera’s attempts to refute the claims about the statements made by Dr. Sanja Ilic, ExThera’s Chief Regulatory Officer and Vice President of Clinical, Regulatory and Medical Affairs, about the procedure’s success in treating tumors during its initial trial in Croatia.
“Plaintiffs, however, have alleged that Dr. Ilic organized and directed the Croatian trial that the Croatian trial did not provide the results that Dr. Ilic represented to Ms. Hudlow and Ms. Baskin over the phone,” the judge wrote. “Such factual allegations are sufficient to support a finding of falsity and that Dr. Ilic either ‘had actual knowledge of the falsity’ of the aforementioned statements or ‘that the statements were made recklessly and negligently’.”
Chesney further claims product liability with Green Light against the company based on its failure to warn patients of the risks ExThera’s Seraph 100 filters posed of blockage and tumor lysis syndrome.
The judge granted the plaintiffs leave to amend the dismissed claims. They have until June 30 to file an amended complaint.
Chesney also dropped allegations against two defendants linked to billionaire investor Alan Quasha. She said there were jurisdictional issues in the claims against Quadrant Management, the Quasha private equity firm that invested in ExThera, and Quadrant Clinical Care, the Antigua-based clinic that administered the procedure.
She also revealed that Dr. Devon Quasha, the daughter of the billionaire who served as Quadrant’s Chief Medical Officer of Clinical Care, and John Preston — an investor in Quadrant Management and a former ExThera Medical board member who the plaintiffs say told them about the procedure’s “wonderful results” — also lacked personal justice against them.
According to plaintiffwhile ExThera’s Seraph 100 blood filters initially showed promise for treating Covid-19 during the pandemic, the company later found it could show promise for treating cancer by removing circulating tumor cells from their blood. She began offering her “ONCObind” treatment on the Caribbean island of Antigua at a cost of $45,000 per round of treatment.
After treatment began, at least three patients died within days or weeks of leaving the island, the plaintiffs say, with many others getting sicker and seeing their cancer markers rise.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On March 5, the Department of Justice DESIGNATED charges against Ilic for concealing reported adverse events, including at least two patient deaths, from the Food and Drug Administration related to its blood filtration device.
According to the government, Ilic agreed to plead guilty and admitted to suppressing information about the device’s “life-threatening” complications to avoid government regulatory scrutiny.
Additionally, the government said ExThera admitted, through Ilic, that the company acted with intent to deceive and mislead the FDA as part of a deferred prosecution agreement related to criminal charges brought against the company in Massachusetts.
Under the settlement, ExThera will pay a $750,000 fine and face forfeiture, along with being required to implement compliance and ethics programs to prevent future violations of FDA reporting requirements.
Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing arguments provides the latest on ongoing trials, major litigation and decisions in courts around the US and the world, while monthly Under the lights feeds legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
