It never rains but it pours for poor old Andrew Witty. Last week it was learned that he had been implicated for ignoring the claims of an employee that dishonest study data was used to promote the effectiveness of a smoking-cessation product, NiQuitin. And now the company that he is CEO of are (yet again) in the news.
It appears that the dust hasn't yet settled in China and two former scientists at a GlaxoSmithKline research facility in Pennsylvania have been indicted for allegedly scheming to steal data on an in-development cancer drug from the research facility and sell them in China.
Yu Xue and Lucy Xi were scientists working at GSK's research facility in Upper Merion, Pennsylvania and had allegedly engaged in a scheme to steal GSK research data, procedures and manufacturing processes for biopharmaceutical products.
Xue, it is alleged, emailed confidential information from her GSK email account to her personal email account so she could then forward it to Li and Mei, two of three others named in the complaint, with whom she, in 2012, founded Chinese companies Renopharma Inc., Nanjing Renopharma Ltd. and Shainghai Renopharma Ltd.
Although this doesn't show GSK in a bad light it does beg the question about the security at GSK.
The indictment charges all five people with conspiring to fraudulently obtain property from GlaxoSmithKline, theft and wire fraud, according to Business Insider.
It's a pity we don't get Glaxo employees trying to steal GSK's procedures for researching, developing and manufacturing other products, Paxil and Wellbutrin for example. Or maybe more of their reps coming forward and blowing the whistle on the illegal promotion of these two particular antidepressants.
So, already in 2016 we have two news stories featuring British pharmaceutical giant, Glaxo. One showing that dishonest study data was used to promote the effectiveness of NiQuitin, the other for showing how two of their own employees breached security and tried to pass off trade secrets.
Ah well, they're getting better - at least no kids have died as a result of their latest shenanigans.
Bob Fiddaman.
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