Ab­b­Vie files trade se­crets suit against Ad­cen­trx and for­mer em­ploy­ee

Ab­b­Vie ac­cused a for­mer em­ploy­ee and a ri­val on­col­o­gy de­vel­op­er of steal­ing trade se­crets about its an­ti­body-drug con­ju­gate pro­grams.

The phar­ma gi­ant on Fri­day filed suit in Cal­i­for­nia fed­er­al court against Ad­cen­trx and sci­en­tist Dan­ny Lee, who left Ab­b­Vie in 2021 to join Ad­cen­trx. The com­plaint al­leges that Lee was “in a unique po­si­tion to know in­for­ma­tion a com­peti­tor would want to know” about Ab­b­Vie’s con­fi­den­tial mi­cro­tubule in­hibitor (MTi) ADC pro­gram. The com­pa­ny claimed Lee took that in­for­ma­tion to Ad­cen­trx, which used it to “jump-start” its own ADC pro­gram, now in Phase I.

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