Swiss scientist convicted of scheme to steal GSK trade secrets

A view shows GlaxoSmithKline headquarters in London, Britain, January 17, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

(Reuters) - A Swiss scientist has been convicted on charges that he conspired with his sister to steal trade secrets from the drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline to benefit biopharmaceutical companies they established, including one the Chinese government financed.

A federal jury in Philadelphia on Friday found Gongda Xue, a former scientist at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Switzerland, guilty of conspiracy, trade secrets theft and wire fraud charges, prosecutors said.

His conviction followed guilty pleas by four other people charged in the investigation including his sister, Yu Xue, a former scientist at GSK who admitted in 2018 to conspiring to steal trade secrets from the British drug manufacturer.

U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky has scheduled sentencing for Aug. 15.

Barry Coburn, Gongda Xue's lawyer at Coburn & Greenbaum, declined to comment on Monday.

GSK in a statement said it was gratified with the verdict and that it will "continue to vigorously protect our systems and data against both internal and external threats and will seek to vindicate our intellectual property rights when they are violated."

Prosecutors filed the first charges in the investigation in 2016 amid a wider push by the U.S. Justice Department to pursue similar cases amid concerns about Chinese theft of U.S. trade secrets.

According to prosecutors, from 2012 to 2016, Yu Xue and another GSK scientist, Lucy Xi, stole confidential information from GSK about products that were under development and then provided the data for use by Renopharma.

Prosecutors said Xue, along with co-defendants Tao Li and Yan Mei, created Renopharma in Nanjing, China, to market and sell the stolen information as its own research, and it received funding from the Chinese government.

Gongda Xue had meanwhile created Abba Therapeutics, a Swiss-based company that like Renopharma intended to develop biopharmaceutical anti-cancer products, prosecutors said.

They alleged that Gongda Xue stole FMI research into anti-cancer products and sent that research to Yu Xue, who in turn sent stolen GSK research to her brother.

Gongda Xue was charged in 2018 and extradited from Switzerland to the United States in December 2019. Yue Xue was sentenced to eight months in prison in May 2021.

Read more:

Ex-GlaxoSmithKline scientist admits stealing trade secrets for Chinese company

Ex-GSK scientist's sister admits to role in trade secret theft scheme

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