Pfizer Inc has sued a longtime worker for allegedly stealing “scores” of confidential paperwork, together with some associated to its COVID-19 vaccine, as she ready to leap to a competitor.
In a grievance filed on Tuesday in San Diego federal courtroom, Pfizer stated Chun Xiao Li breached her confidentiality settlement by importing greater than 12,000 information with out permission to her private accounts and gadgets from her company-issued laptop computer.
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The alleged supplies embrace a Sept. 24 “playbook” containing inside assessments and suggestions concerning the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer’s relationship with its German vaccine accomplice, and shows associated to most cancers antibodies.
Pfizer stated Li, an affiliate director of statistics, tried repeatedly to cowl her tracks, even offering a “decoy” laptop computer to idiot it into considering what she did with the information.
Li “has misled Pfizer about what she took, how she took it, when and why she did it, and the place these information (and presumably others) might be discovered,” the New York-based drugmaker stated.
Pfizer stated Li is resigning after 15 years on the firm, and seems to have a proposal to hitch Xencor Inc, a California clinical-stage firm specializing in therapies for most cancers and autoimmune illnesses, on Nov. 29.
Li couldn’t instantly be reached for remark by her LinkedIn account. Xencor shouldn’t be a defendant within the lawsuit, and declined to remark.
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Pfizer stated rivals have been making an attempt to recruit its workers “relentlessly, particularly throughout 2021.”
In an order late on Tuesday, U.S. District Decide Cathy Ann Bencivengo quickly blocked Li from utilizing Pfizer’s commerce secrets and techniques, and stated the corporate’s legal professionals can evaluation accounts and gadgets the place she might need saved them.
The decide scheduled a Dec. 9 listening to to think about an extended injunction.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Further reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Enhancing by Leslie Adler
