Pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer alleges that an employee stole COVID-19 vaccine secrets in advance of a job move to a rival company.
The New York-headquartered firm filed a complaint in a Californian district court earlier this week against “soon-to-be-former employee” Chun Xiao (Sherry) Li, according to Bloomberg Law.
It reportedly alleges that Li uploaded more than 12,000 files, including “scores” of confidential documents to a Google Drive account. They’re said to have included vaccine study analysis and info on the development of new drugs.
It’s claimed that the pharma giant detected the activity after installing software to monitor for suspicious behavior, such as uploading files to the cloud. The firm had reportedly already disabled USB access on employee devices.
Li allegedly uploaded the files over a three-day period in October 2021. Officials at the firm reportedly investigated and found an email containing a job offer from Californian pharma firm Xencor.
