Novartis drops subpoena request in trade-secret spat with Takeda

22 Nov 2023
www.fiercepharma.com
VaccinePatent InfringementmRNA
Novartis drops subpoena request in trade-secret spat with Takeda
Preview
Source: FiercePharma
Novartis is no longer seeking legal assistance to access Takeda's business records.
Novartis has withdrawn its request to access Takeda’s documents as part of an investigation over potential trade secrets theft.
Novartis originally filed the complaint in Massachusetts Superior Court in October. The Swiss pharma wanted to find out whether a former employee in Egypt took sensitive documents to his new job with Takeda.
After being “stonewalled” by Takeda, Novartis resorted to legal action, attempting to subpoena the Japanese pharma’s business records and depose an employee. Takeda, on Nov. 10, filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for recovery.
According to Novartis, a former employee named Khaled Shams Eldin transferred some 10,000 files to his personal email before departing the company in May. After leaving his post as operations lead for cell and gene therapy at Novartis’ Egyptian unit, Eldin joined Takeda in July in a similar position, the company said.
Earlier this week, Novartis dropped the case, according to a court filing.
It’s not clear if Takeda provided Novartis the related information or offered any assurances to resolve its concerns. In a statement to Fierce Pharma, Novartis said the matter “has been resolved.”
Cases involving alleged theft of trade secrets are not uncommon in the pharma world.
Back in 2021, Pfizer accused a former employee of inappropriately taking more than 12,000 sensitive files—including some on the company’s BioNTech-partnered COVID vaccine—to her personal device. In another case around Pfizer’s research into the hot GLP-1 field, the New York pharma this summer settled a trade secret lawsuit against China’s Regor Therapeutics, which was founded by two former Pfizer scientists.
GSK, Roche’s Genentech, AbbVie and FibroGen all had trade secret cases involving former staffers.
For more details,please visit the original website
The content of the article does not represent any opinions of Synapse and its affiliated companies. If there is any copyright infringement or error, please contact us, and we will deal with it within 24 hours.
Organizations
Indications
-
Targets
-
Drugs
-
Get started for free today!
Accelerate Strategic R&D decision making with Synapse, PatSnap’s AI-powered Connected Innovation Intelligence Platform Built for Life Sciences Professionals.
Start your data trial now!
Synapse data is also accessible to external entities via APIs or data packages. Leverages most recent intelligence information, enabling fullest potential.