After Eli Lilly and GSK, former Genentech employees caught stealing trade secrets

By PharmaCompass

2018-11-01

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Back in 2013, two former Eli Lilly scientists were accused of stealing US$ 55 million in trade secrets on behalf of a Chinese drug company. And last month, a cancer researcher in the US, named Yu Xue, was accused of stealing GSK’s trade secrets for a string of companies called Renopharma Inc.

This week, four former Genentech employees in the US were indicted by a federal grand jury for the alleged theft of company trade secrets in order to help a company in Taiwan — JHL Biotech, Inc — develop drugs similar to those made by the Roche subsidiary. Founded in 2012, JHL Biotech develops biosimilar drugs primarily for marketing in China.

The jury indicted Xanthe Lam (a principal scientist who was with Genentech from 1985 until last year), Allen Lam, Hohn Chan and James Quach for stealing trade secrets. Allen Lam, Xanthe’s husband, as well as Chan and Quach were all former employees who became consultants for JHL Biotech.

According to the Department of Justice, JHL develops biosimilar treatments. The four are alleged to have conspired to steal information related to four Genentech drugs — Pulmozyme, Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin — and provide that information to JHL.

According to the indictment, Xanthe Lam, whose services were terminated by Genentech last year, gathered confidential clinical data about the drugs and sent them to her husband and the other two conspirators. They, in turn, sent the information to JHL Biotech. The indictment also said that while employed at Genentech, Xanthe Lam secretly consulted with the Taiwan-based company.

Xanthe Lam faces multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets. Two of the charges carry 10-year sentences and US$ 250,000 fines each. The other two carry five-year prison sentences and US$ 250,000 fines each.

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