Chinese businesses spied on Durham pharmaceutical firm
Published: Wed, Sep. 03, 2008 01:03PM
Modified Wed, Sep. 03, 2008 12:50PM
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeA Wake County judge has ruled that Chinese businesses committed corporate espionage and stole trade secrets from Serenex, a Durham bio-pharmaceutical company.
Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens ruled Tuesday that the two companies and a former Serenex employee must pay Serenex $57.5 million for damages. It’s not clear if the Durham company can collect the money, since the Chinese businesses ignored the lawsuit.
According to Serenex’s suit, filed last year, former Serenex chemist Yunsheng Huang passed along trade secrets to Beijing Gylongli Sci. & Tech. Co. and GYLL Biomedtech. Serenex also sued Tongxiang Zhang, a member of the Chinese Communist Party who runs the two Chinese companies. The suit alleges that Zhang and others filed a patent application for a cancer treatment similar to Serenex's.
More Afternoon Update
According to Stephens’ ruling, neither Zhang, Gylongli or GYLL responded to the Serenex complaint. Huang, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had been living in Apex. His lawyer said last year that Huang did nothing wrong and that Serenex lacked proof that Huang stole intellectual property.
Serenex, founded in 2001, this year was acquired by Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker.
john.murawski@newsobserver.com or (919)829-8932
Get it all with convenient home delivery of The News & Observer.
The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
