And to make his point, Eugene has filed a $1 million slander suit against Jerry Treppel, who formerly worked as a Banc of America securities analyst and has tracked the generics industry for many years. The Biovail founder says he was defamed when Treppel called him a “criminal” during a May 8 meeting with the Ontario Securities Commission.

As a result, Eugene says he “suffered serious injury to his personal and professional reputation,” The New York Post reports. Treppel was also at the meeting, which was held to discuss a settlement between Melnyk and the OSC over the Biovail founder’s stock trading activities, and supposedly unleased a torrent of ’stinging one-liners’ aimed at Melnyk.

The lawsuit is the latest chapter in an ongoing battle between Treppel and Melynk, who in May stepped down as Biovail’s ceo amid a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into his stock trades. The pair have been embroiled in a bitter federal court fight in federal court in New York, and Treppel has accused Melnyk of waging a bitter - and ultimately successful - campaign to get him fired in 2002.

In the event cited in the lawsuit, Treppel is accused of calling Melnyk “a criminal” in front of both Biovail executives and members of the media. Treppel is also quoted of saying, “What do you have to do to get indicted in Canada?”

Though he reached a $1 million settlement with the OSC and was suspended for a year from Biovail, Melnyk faces both the SEC probe and an investigation by federal prosecutors.

Treppel is no stranger to controversy either. He was on the board of Able Laboratories, the small generic drugmaker, that imploded not long ago and was shut down by the FDA for fabricating test results. One exec pleaded guilty to insider trading. Treppel, however, was never implicated in any wrongdoing.

Hat tip, once more, to PharmaGossip