A federal investigation into a criminal ring that stole trade secrets from GlaxoSmithKline for a Chinese biotech has claimed its fifth target.
Gongda Xue, a Chinese citizen and former scientist at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) in Switzerland, has been convicted on charges that he conspired to steal trade secrets from GSK to benefit his own company.
Xue’s conviction followed guilty pleas by four other people in the same case, including his sister, Yu Xue, a former top chemist at GSK who has been identified as the ringleader of the scheme.
“While working for their respective entities, the defendant and his sister betrayed their employers and shared confidential information for their own personal benefit,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.
The case focuses on a Chinese biotech Yu Xue co-founded, called Renopharma. Yu Xue, along with fellow ex-GSK scientist Lucy Xi, stole GSK research related to anti-cancer products to build Renopharma’s own pipeline. She also fed the confidential GSK documents to his brother Gongda Xue, who created a Swiss biotech called Abba Therapeutics. In return, Gongda Xue stole FMI’s cancer research and sent it to his sister.
Yu Xue and Xi were previously employed at a GSK’s facility in Upper Merion, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. To form Renopharma, Yu Xue also collaborated with molecular biologist Tao Li and Xi’s husband Yan Mei, a medicinal chemist.
The data Yu Xue sent to her teammates included GSK research information and R&D and manufacturing processes of biopharmaceutical products, according to the DOJ.
“Renopharma then attempted to re-brand GSK products under development as Renopharma products and attempted to sell them for billions of dollars,” the DOJ said.
The products typically cost over $1 billion to research and develop, the DOJ previously noted, and Renopharma’s own projection figured the stolen GSK data could make it worth as much as $10 billion.
Before Gongda Xue’s conviction, Yu Xue, Xi and Li have pleaded guilty for their roles in stealing GSK trade secrets. Yu Xue’s sister, Tian Xue, pleaded guilty to money laundering for helping with the illegal gains that Renopharma expected to receive. Mei is considered a fugitive who currently lives in China.