Precision-fermented dairy company Perfect Day has filed a $200 million counterclaim at its Italian contract manufacturer Olon, according to AgFunder News.

The claim accuses Olon of ‘gross negligence and willfull misconduct,’ and comes after Olon sued the firm in April for breach of contract, fraudulent inducement and fraudulent concealment.

In its complaint filed in New York on 12 April this year, Olon accused Perfect Day of stringing it along while it ‘planned’ to switch production of beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) whey protein made via precision fermentation to cheaper in-house facilities in India.

In an 84-page rebuttal filed last week (14 June), Perfect Day fired back, accusing Olon of fraud, breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.

Perfect Day said that it repeatedly made it clear to Olon that its intent was to own and operate its own plants and that it would ‘eventually’ produce BLG at plants in India but says the facilities in question ‘were no threat to Olon’s business relationship with Perfect Day’ and have not to date manufactured any product.

The firm went on to say that as Olon knew its own cost of production and the price at which Perfect Day had to sell BLG, “Olon knew that Perfect Day would not be profitable if it exclusively used Olon as a manufacturer. For this reason, among others, there was never any discussion that Olon would be the exclusive manufacturer of BLG.”

The Cell Base has approached Perfect Day and Olon for comment.

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