Beur schreef op 16 oktober 2019 14:03:
Hieronder de integrale tekst van het artikel uit de Sydney Morning Herald. Boeiende stof. Dr.Chiao en Pharming hebben wel wat uit te leggen.
One million pages stolen': Aussie giant accuses former exec of espionageOctober 16, 2019
Australian blood giant CSL has been rocked by an alleged corporate espionage attack, with a former "high level" employee accused of stealing tens of thousands of its documents - including trade secrets - in order to land a job at a key competitor.
CSL's main operating subsidiary, CSL Behring, has launched court action in America alleging its competitor, Dutch pharmaceuticals group Pharming, and former CSL senior medical officer Joe Chiao misappropriated CSL's trade secrets when they took 25 gigabytes of data.
Court documents reveal that CSL alleges the raid pilfered 1 million pages of company information across 21,000 files. CSL last week secured a temporary injunction against Dr Chiao and Pharming.
Born out of Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, CSL is Australia’s third largest publicly listed company and considered one of the country’s best ever exports with operations around the world and a market capitalisation of $114 billion. On Wednesday its shares, held by all major Australian super funds, hit a fresh record high of $253.83.
Following an inquiry from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald this morning, CSL disclosed the court case at its annual general meeting on Wednesday.
CSL chief executive Paul Perreault told the company’s shareholder meeting: "It’s basically a case that’s in litigation or soon to go under litigation, and it was caught by our cybersecurity."
CSL has asked the US District Court of Pennsylvania for a permanent injunction against Dr Chiao and Pharming using its information and compensatory and punitive damages against the doctor and its competitor.
CSL’s allegations are expected to reverberate through the highly competitive global drug making industry where trade secrets are the most prized possession of the companies.
Dr Chiao, a specialist in a rare blood disease, resigned on September 23, sparking an internal investigation into his sudden departure which uncovered emails, texts and a clandestine meeting at a hotel in Budapest, according to the court documents.
The internal investigation found that over the months before his resignation Dr Chiao had allegedly engaged in talks with senior executives at Pharming and offered to take information from CSL.
He later secured a senior position at the Dutch group. The secrets allegedly targeted were initially related to only one of CSL’s products, a treatment for the rare disease
hereditary angioedema, which was Dr Chiao's area of expertise.However, Dr Chiao is also accused in the documents of taking secrets relating to a vast number of CSL’s products, including its research and development of treatments for common blood disorders – the backbone of CSL’s business.
According to the court documents filed by CSL, Dr Chiao in May this year met with Pharming vice president of clinical research and medical affairs Anurag Relan at a hotel in Budapest close to where a major medical conference was taking place, "presumably to avoid being seen together".
After that meeting Dr Chiao and Mr Relan continued to communicate via text messages, the court documents allege.
These messages include Dr Chiao telling Mr Relan: "I’m hopeful that you will be able to convince your boss regarding how we would align together to effect a large difference to the bottom line of Pharming."
Mr Relan replied: "Joe, I had a chat with our COO and he is supportive ... Thanks and
excited about the possibilities."
Another message allegedly shows Dr Chiao telling Mr Relan about a new product CSL was developing: "I can bring this concept to Pharming. Nothing has been signed yet…"Other messages allegedly show Dr Chiao shared portions of the secret manuscript prepared by an association CSL is a member of about key drug developments.
"I’m not even sharing the manuscript internally at CSL," Dr Chiao said in a text message cited in the documents.CSL alleges Dr Chiao then shared portions of the manuscript with Mr Relan. It also alleges Mr Relan encouraged Dr Chiao to send through information that would help Pharming. In September this year, Pharming offered Dr Chiao a plum job.
"Having spent months exchanging ideas and information with Pharming, Chiao was finally offered employment as Pharming’s executive medical director in mid-September 2019," CSL alleges in its complaint.
CSL alleges Dr Chiao resigned on September 23 giving two weeks’ notice, but was supposed to start at Pharming on September 30, "meaning he presumably intended to work for both CSL Behring and Pharming for one week."
"This is particularly troubling given that before he notified anyone at CSL Behring that he was leaving, Chiao spent the weekend emailing and downloading documents from CSL Behring’s computer systems," CSL said in its court filings.
Pharming has been contacted for comment and Dr Chiao has not responded to the allegations. CSL provided a statement today that was later read in part by its CEO at its AGM.