Former Pfizer employees steal trade secrets.
Pfizer accused two former employees who formed a biotech startup of stealing “the hard work” of Big Pharma’s own scientists for a diabetes and obesity program, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Did they decide to steal the hard work of Pfizer scientists and doctors?
“Instead of fulfilling their ethical and contractual responsibilities as Pfizer employees. They decided to steal the hard work of Pfizer scientists and doctors for their own benefit.” Says the complaint of former employees Min Zhong and Xiayang Qiu.
The complaint alleges that Zhong and Qiu created Regor Therapeutics while still working at Pfizer and met with international financial backers. This, to secure financing. Zhong and Qiu also created a second company called QILU Regor Therapeutics.
Pfizer said the defendants stole trade secrets and confidential information for weeks before giving notice they were leaving the company.
The complaint says a confidential document, stripped of Pfizer’s confidentiality markings, was uploaded to a personal account two months before Zhong and Qiu left. They later used this information in a new presentation “on a revolutionary new drug for diabetes and obesity.” Which, according to Pfizer, detailed sensitive information from its GLP-1 program.
“The Pfizer trade secrets and confidential information that Qiu and Zhong stole essentially gave the defendants the playbook and the science. As well as the underlying data critical to developing their own putative treatment for diabetes and obesity. An illegal head start that saved the defendants a significant amount of money and years of development time,” Pfizer said.
Ex-Pfizer Employees Steal Trade Secrets: Alleged Theft Uncovered After Forensic Analysis of Accounts
Within months of founding Regor, Pfizer said the defendants filed for patent protection for a treatment “strikingly similar” to Pfizer’s diabetes and obesity treatment. The company says Qiu, who serves as CEO at Regor, and Zhong, who is chief operating officer. They could not have developed such a treatment in such a short time without the robbery.
The alleged theft was discovered after a forensic analysis of Qiu and Zhong’s Pfizer accounts and devices. Zhong’s Pfizer-issued iPhone has not been recovered.
“Pfizer conducted its analysis after it first suspected the defendants’ treachery following the publication of Regor’s patent application that claimed the fruits of years of Pfizer research,” the complaint says.
The complaint alleges that Qiu and Zhong misappropriated trade secrets in violation of the Defense of Trade Secrets Act, as well as Connecticut trade secret laws.
The New York drugmaker has two GLP-1 candidates in development for diabetes and obesity. Danuglipron is in phase 2 of development, while PF-07081532 is in phase 1, according to the Pfizer pipeline.
“Pfizer’s small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist technology is very promising from both a clinical and commercial perspective, and the trade secrets and confidential information behind it would also be very lucrative for a competitor looking to avoid substantial investment. of Pfizer while reaping the commercial benefits,” the complaint said.
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