On Wednesday, federal prosecutors indicted five employees of pharmaceutical powerhouse GlaxoSmithKline on charges of stealing trade secret about drugs to treat cancer and other diseases. Two of the employees were scientists who worked at GSK’s research facility in Pennsylvania. The two scientists released confidential data about GSK’s products to associates who were going to sell and market the trade secrets through a company called Renopharma.
Some of the documents included information regarding new monoclonal antibody technology that binds to receptors common in certain types of cancer cells. The product would eliminate or slow down the cancer. Such information would prove to be incredibly helpful to a start-up biopharmaceutical company, as the indictment mentioned. The New York Times reported that GSK was cooperating with authorities and that it believed that the breach had no “material impact.”
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