Pfizer claims one of its former global marketing managers tried to make off with launch secrets—and now, it’s working to stop her in her tracks.
The pharma giant has won a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Aimee de Blasis Amman, who it says is holding on to a USB drive full of files and 42 emails she forwarded to her personal account before resigning in January. The messages and files contain “proprietary, confidential and trade secret information,” the company claims.
The order, issued in a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania, now prohibits Amman from using, transferring and destroying any of Pfizer’s confidential info.
The TRO came just days after the pharma giant sued Amman, claiming the emails she sent to herself included sensitive info on Pfizer’s “strategic planning, short- and long-term operating plans, and specific product launch roadmaps." And that was information the judge in the case agreed could cause “severe and irreparable harm” if it were to fall into the wrong hands.
Amman secretly copied 600 Pfizer files—some of which were folders that contained a total of 6,000 documents, the legal complaint says. The former marketing manager made off with those files in an "unencrypted removable usb external hard drive device" during her last weeks at Pfizer, "including the days before she resigned," the lawsuit says.
Pfizer, of course, has plenty of launch plans it would like to keep to itself. The company is preparing to roll out Eucrisa, the recently approved, wannabe eczema blockbuster from new buy Anacor. And it has other competitive rollouts underway; the drugmaker’s hot new breast cancer seller Ibrance is about to gain new competition from Novartis, whose LEE011 could rack up $1.6 billion by 2022, EP Vantage predicts.