Five Charged of Conspiring to Steal Trade Secrets From Glaxo
January 20 2016 - 7:30PM
Dow Jones News
Five people have been indicted on federal charges that they
conspired to steal trade secrets from drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC
and to provide them to companies doing business in China.
Two of the people worked as scientists at a GlaxoSmithKline
research facility in Upper Merion, Pa., near Philadelphia,
according to a grand-jury indictment released Wednesday by the U.S.
attorney's office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which
is prosecuting the case.
One of the scientists, Yu Xue, of Wayne, Pa., is a protein
biochemist who worked at Glaxo from 2006 until earlier this month,
according to the indictment. She allegedly used her Glaxo email
account from 2012 to 2015 to send trade secrets and confidential
information about at least a dozen products to her personal email
account, and then forwarded the information to other people charged
in the case. The documents included slide presentations about the
design of certain drugs, the indictment says.
Yu Xue and two other people founded a U.S. company called
Renopharma Inc. and two related businesses in China, according to
the indictment. The businesses sought investors in China and
planned to develop their own drugs, according to the
indictment.
Peter Zeidenberg, an attorney for Yu Xue, said she has pleaded
not guilty and denies the allegations.
Others charged in the case are: Tao Li, of Nanjing, China; Yan
Mei, of Nanjing, China; Tian Xue, of Charlotte, N.C.; and Lucy Xi,
of WestlakeVillage, Calif. Ms. Xi worked at Glaxo from 2008 to
2015, according to the indictment. An attorney for Tian Xue
declined to comment, and an attorney for Ms. Xi didn't immediately
return a call for comment. Attorneys for Tao Li and Yan Mei
couldn't be reached.
The indictment charges all five people with conspiring to
fraudulently obtain property from Glaxo, as well as additional
related charges for some of them.
A GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman said the company has been
cooperating with U.S. authorities. She said the company doesn't
believe the breach has had a material impact on the company's
business or research and development.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2016 19:15 ET (00:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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