The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia charged five individuals with a plan to steal trade secrets from GlaxoSmithKline to sell in China, according to an article from Reuters. Two of the five charged were former GlaxoSmithKline researchers. The indictments include charges of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, theft of trade secrets and wire fraud.
The complaint against the five states that the stolen information could potentially be sold for millions of dollars to pharmaceutical competitors and be valuable to startup pharmaceutical companies, according to the article. One of those charged is a former high level manger who had access to a wide range of secret information. Glaxo said in a statement that it does not believe the breach has had a material impact on the company’s business or its R&D efforts.
Read the entire article here.