Sanofi Chemist Admits To Stealing Trade Secrets
8 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // January 18th, 2012 // 7:53 am
Nearly six years ago, Yuan Li was hired as a medicinal chemist for Sanofi. And during that time, she worked on countless compounds and signed all the usual paperwork in which she acknowledged there were no conflicts of interest and that the intellectual property belonged to the drugmaker. But last year, Sanofi learned otherwise.
In May 2011, a little-known company called Abby Pharmatech began advertising chemical compounds on its web site and by the following month, Sanofi had identified more than 6,000 propriety chemical structures on an online database called SciFinder that were registered to Abby Pharmatech.
The drugmaker went to the feds, who discovered that Li was listed on federal tax forms as one of two partners and owned a 50 percent stake in the business, according to court documents (read here). Li, who is a Chinese national, later admitted, that between October 2008 and June 2011, she accessed a Sanofi database and downloaded info on numerous compounds and chemical structures, court documents state.
And the penalty? The charge to which Li pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She may also face deportation, according to the plea agreement. Sentencing is scheduled for April 23, according to a statement from US Attorney Paul Fishman in Newark, New Jersey.
downbutnotout
What else is new? Not that I am a racist, it should cause an outrage. I mean the outsourcing to China at the expense of ignoring the qualified American Chemist is not enough for the Chinese nationals? How far can on one go? This is too much by my reckoning.
original industry insider
This is my preferred method of punishment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1165416/Chinas-hi-tech-death-van-criminals-executed-organs-sold-black-market.html
counterfeit by another name
You should look at the FDA reviewers demographics.
Kevin
Uh oh, I do sense a lot of race hating and discrimination going on here. We all know white people would never steal anything. I mean, just ask the Southeast Asians, Africans, and Middle Easterners.
counterfeit by another name
I think it says more about the lack of US born scientists than anything else. What other country hires foreign nationals as government employees? I was referring to the IP exposure of these reviewers. It was only last year that an OGD reviewer got busted for making insider info trading.
original industry insider
Kevin is correct. Intellectual property theft knows geographic boundaries. With almost 30 years in Pharmaceutical R&D I’ve seen these things happening long before the Chinese or other ex US scientists arrived on the scene.
Moreover, these 6000 proprietary structures have zero value until someone turns them into a drug, and if some thought they had any value the IP could have been licensed, not stolen. Compare this with an example from early in my career where an American born scientist working for one of my companies held key patents for discovery and prodiction of monoclonal antibodies. You think that might just be worth a few tens of billions? His problem was trying to take his IP to a new company without paying his original company the royalties due to it.
There are today many wealthy patent lawyers around the United States that have become so based on litigation related to IP theft, patent infringement, etc. To paraphrase Springsteen, these kinds of illegal activities were “Born in the USA”.
counterfeit by another name
Theft wasn’t born in the USA. It’s human nature. Taking the high moral ground quickly find sea level at your toes. Don’t be so quick to assign labels.
original industry insider
Counterfiet if you believe that theft is human nature than I am sorry that you have such a dim view of humankind. I believe in the essential decency of people. However, where I agree with you is that these days in too many households kids are being raised without a strong moral compass, so that unless things change for the better, what you are saying about human nature may ultimately become a self fulfilling prophecy.