Trade secret protection in the pharma industry

摘要

On 20 January 2016, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania indicted two research scientists at Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK), on charges of stealing trade secrets from the company and wire fraud, in connection with the theft of confidential information, money laundering and conspiracy. The trade secrets in question had to do with GSK's biopharma program. The indictment notes that GSK "typically spent in excess of US$1 billion to research and develop each biopharmaceutical product" [1].