Jury Convicts Former Novartis-Affiliated Researcher of Conspiracy to Steal GSK Trade Secrets
Gongda Xue, formerly a scientist with a Swiss research institute affiliated with the pharmaceutical firm Novartis, was convicted of conspiracy to steal trade secrets from GlaxoSmithKline (GKS) in Pennsylvania, where his sister Yu Xue, worked, Jennifer Arbittier Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced May 2. Williams’ office said that from January 2010 to January 2016, Gongda Xue stole “research into anti-cancer products and sent that research to Yu Xue,” while she “stole GSK research into anti-cancer products and sent that to Gongda Xue.”
Yu Xue and “associates” founded a firm in China called Renopharma; her brother created Abba Therapeutics AG in Switzerland. “Renopharma then attempted to re-brand GSK products under development as Renopharma products and attempted to sell them for billions of dollars. Renopharma’s own internal projections showed that the company could be worth as much as $10 billion based upon the stolen GSK data,” the announcement said. Yu Xue was arrested in 2016 and Gongda Xue was extradited from Switzerland in 2019. Yu Xue pleaded guilty in 2018 (as did three others) and, on May 26, 2021, was sentenced to eight months in prison, according to court documents reviewed by RRC. The government previously said Gongda was facing 20 years in prison, if convicted. GSK has not been able to collect restitution connected to the case, as a judge ruled the government did not prove GSK suffered actual financial losses.
