Health: Neurotech fires a strategic adviser after claims he's a dud, shares fall 17pc

Brain biotech Neurotech (ASX:NTI) has just fired a strategic adviser after an investigation by a Maltese newspaper found he had lied about his professional qualifications.

Dr Adrian Attard Trevisan was terminated from his role providing “specific advisory services” to the company following the allegations, which were “deeply disappointing”, the company said.

Scroll down for the ASX’s other health movements today.

Neurotech focuses on treating people with neurological conditions and its flagship device Mente is a home therapy aimed at increasing engagement and improving relaxation in kids with autism.

Dr Attard Trevisan originally ceased employment with the company in April 2016 but remained as a director until June last year, when he retired.

But by December he was back, with the company trumpeting the return of the “founder and visionary of the Mente therapy for Autism” as a strategic advisor with particular focus on medical and artificial intelligence.

“I greatly value the insight and energy that Adrian brings to the business and look forward to a fruitful and long-last partnership that will build value for all,” Neurotech CEO Peter Griffiths said at the time.

But following a Times of Malta report — asserting Dr Attard Trevisan lied about having a PhD in neuroscience from University College London — Neurotech fired him, saying his advisory role was a “limited one”.

“Neurotech’s flagship product Mente is the result of much more than the work of one person,” the company said today. “Neurotech’s dedicated Mente team has worked for many years to create, refine and improve the device and its therapeutic outcomes – and that work continues today, and into the future.”

Neurotech investors were spooked, sending the shares down 17 per cent to an all-time intraday low of 1.5c.

Dr Attard Trevisan told Maltese journalists that he had made a “mistake” and that he was unable to complete the UCL PhD so transferred to Milan University, where he obtained a PhD in human physiology in 2015.

It’s not the first time Dr Attard Trevisan has courted trouble for the company, either. Earlier this month he and Neurotech’s Maltese subsidiaries AAT Research and AAT Medical, were sued by a former employee of AAT Medical, who claims Dr Attard Trevisan used copyrighted material in a doctoral thesis in relation to epilepsy without due acknowledgement to the author, Dr Rudi Agius.

Dr Agius is seeking compensation for loss and damages, but Neurotech says his claims are “without any basis in fact and in law”, although adds it “insists that this is a private matter between the plaintiff and Dr Attard Trevisan”.

Comment has been sought from Neurotech.

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