PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Lucy Xi, 44, formerly a resident of Malvern, PA, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal trade secrets from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to benefit a Chinese pharmaceutical company named Renopharma.
Lucy Xi’s co-defendants, Yu Xue, Tao Li
and Yan Mei, established Renopharma supposedly to research and develop
anti-cancer drugs. In reality, though, the company was used as a repository of
information stolen from GSK. Renopharma received financial support and
subsidies from the government of China. At the time, Lucy Xi (who was married
to Yan Mei) and Yu Xue were employed as a scientists at a GSK facility in Upper
Merion, PA, which worked on developing biopharmaceutical products. These products
typically cost in excess of $1 billion to research and develop.
In January 2015, Lucy Xi sent Yan Mei a
GSK document which contained confidential and trade secret data and
information. The document provided a summary of GSK research into monoclonal antibodies
at that time. In the body of the e-mail, Lucy Xi wrote, “You need to understand
it very well. It will help you in your future business [RENOPHARMA].”
Yu Xue, her sister, Tian Xue, and Tao Li
have all pleaded guilty for their roles in this conspiracy. Yan Mei is a
fugitive who currently resides in China.
“This defendant illegally stole trade
secrets to benefit her husband’s company, which was financed by the Chinese
government,” said U.S. Attorney Williams. “The lifeblood of companies like GSK
is its intellectual property, and when that property is stolen and transferred
to a foreign country, it threatens thousands of American jobs and jeopardizes
the strategic benefits brought about through research and development. Such
criminal behavior must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Pharmaceutical firms like GSK invest
staggering amounts of time and money to develop new medications and bring them
to market,” said Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s
Philadelphia Division. “When individuals steal valuable trade secrets
concerning one of these drugs, it’s a threat both to that firm and beyond.
After all, innovation like this propels the U.S. economy. The FBI is committed
to enforcing laws that protect the nation’s businesses from such theft. We will
not permit American research and development to be scavenged for the benefit of
other companies or countries.”
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Robert J. Livermore and J. Jeanette Kang.
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