Pfizer Inc. filed suit on Wednesday in the District of Connecticut against defendants Regor Therapeutics Inc., Qilu Regor Therapeutics Inc., Xiayang Qiu, Min Zhong, and more. The complaint alleges that Qiu and Zhong, both former employees of the plaintiff, stole trade secrets and valuable information from Pfizer that they later illegally incorporated into a new company, Regor.
As a healthcare giant, the plaintiff focuses their efforts on solving public health crises such as Type 2 diabetes, the complaint began. Pfizer explains that they put hundreds of millions of dollars towards the research and development of a new diabetes-and-obesity medication, stating “the trade secrets and confidential information behind it [the medication] would also be highly lucrative to a competitor looking to avoid Pfizer’s substantial investment while reaping the commercial benefits.”
Because Pfizer holds valuable information and trade secrets regarding their medication, the complaint asserts that Pfizer takes “significant steps to protect its innovations, including the highly confidential research-and-development work.” Pfizer employees are required to sign agreements in which they acknowledge and agree to complete confidentiality. As previous employees, defendant Zhong and Qiu had to sign these agreements. During their time working for the plaintiff, the defendants continually received training and written policies that reinforced the importance of the information and corresponding confidentiality obligations.
Defendants Zhong and Qiu were both integral to Pfizer operations until 2018 when they allegedly took Pfizer’s “trade secrets and confidential information unlawfully to launch a competing company, [Regor].” A Pfizer investigation of the defendants revealed that they used many devices and accounts to carry out the alleged scheme and took “affirmative steps to cover up their misconduct.”
Just five months after leaving Pfizer, in November of 2018, the defendants allegedly filed a GLP-1 small-molecule patent, which described “a set of small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist compounds that appear strikingly similar” to those that Pfizer had developed. Further, the plaintiff argues that the development of this process had taken Pfizer five years, whereas the defendants had only taken five months.
The fast nature of the Regor’s filing of multiple patents was alarming to the plaintiff., the complaint said. Pfizer contends that without their “trade secrets and confidential information resulting from Pfizer’s long-term efforts, it would have been impossible for a brand-new start-up company with no track record in research and development to make, test, and identify multiple active GLP-1 receptor agonist compounds in time to attempt to patent that work only five months after that company was created.”
The complaint cites counts of misappropriation of trade secrets under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), misappropriation of trade secrets under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA), breach of contract under New York and Connecticut Law to defendants Qiu and Zhong respectively, breach of fiduciary duty and duty of loyalty under Connecticut Law and unfair and deceptive trade practices. The plaintiff is seeking actual, exemplary and punitive damages, injunctive relief, favorable judgment on all counts, disgorgement for unjust enrichment, litigation fees, and more.
The plaintiff is represented by Wiggin and Dana LLP in the litigation.
