Five people have been indicted on federal charges alleging they conspired to steal trade secrets from drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC in order to seed a start-up with confidential data and gain a profit by trading the information with Chinese companies.
Two of the people named in the indictment - Yu Xue, 45, and Lucy Xi, 38 - worked as scientists at a GlaxoSmithKline research facility in Upper Merion, Pa. It alleges that Xue 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 account, then sent them to others later mentioned in the indictment. Similarly Xi, wife of Yan Mei (another person named in the document), emailed trade secrets to her husband.
Using this information, Xue launched Renopharma Inc. July 16, 2012, and, along with Mei and Tao Li (the fourth person named in the case), started two related companies in China, Nanjing Renopharma and Shanghai Renopharma, reported Philly.com. The businesses sought investors in China and planned to develop their own drugs using the stolen secrets taken from GSK.
"Many of the stolen documents contained GSK's procedures for researching, developing and manufacturing biopharmaceutical products, which had been developed by GSK over many years, information which would be especially useful for a start-up biopharmaceutical company," read the indictment in part.
The last person named in the indictment was Tian Xue, Yu Xue's twin sister. Tian also worked for Renopharma, and was found to be complicit in the entire affair, allowing the other four to hide a portion of the proceeds gained from Yu's activities in her own name.
The indictment charges all five people with conspiring to fraudulently obtain property from GlaxoSmithKline, theft and wire fraud, according to Business Insider.
A GSK spokeswoman has since issued a statement revealing that the company has been cooperating with authorities. She didn't reveal how much the stolen secrets were worth, but said the company doesn't believe the "breach has had any material impact on the company's business or R&D activity."
