Pfizer claims employee stole COVID-19 vaccine documents

Pfizer is currently investigating a soon-to-be former employee who it believes has transferred more than 12,000 files, many of which contain confidential and trade secret information, to her personal devices and has repeatedly attempted to cover her tracks.

In a suit filed yesterday, November 23, at the US District Court for the Southern District of California, Pfizer alleged that the employee had misappropriated trade secrets, including confidential documents focused on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and its avelumab and elranatamab monoclonal antibodies.

Pfizer sought a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief while it commences arbitration proceedings, in accordance with a confidentiality agreement the defendant had previously signed.

Yesterday, District Judge Cathy Bencivengo granted the temporary restraining order, enjoining the employee from using or disclosing Pfizer’s confidential information and trade secrets and destroying any computer devices she may have stored Pfizer’s documents on and ordering her to return any confidential hard copy documents.

In its suit alleging trade secret misappropriation, Pfizer alleged that it had spoken to the defendant, who worked as associate director of statistics, about her “troubling conduct” and that the defendant had sought to cover her tracks repeatedly.

“She went so far as to provide Pfizer’s security team a decoy laptop, leading Pfizer to believe it was the one she used to download the 12,000 files from her Google Drive account,” said the claim, adding that forensic analyses confirmed it was not.

The defendant allegedly declined to disclose the reason for her departure and a final interview. However, Pfizer knew she had received an offer to work at a competitor, following an investigation of the defendant’s Pfizer email account.

Pfizer claimed it would be unjust to permit the defendant and anybody she may be working in concert with to “trade on Pfizer’s successes and experience” and that Pfizer is “threatened with losing the value of its confidential, proprietary, and trade-secret information, customer and business relationships, and goodwill”.

The pharma company is seeking injunctive relief, to provide Pfizer’s outside counsel “attorneys- eyes-only access” to her personal Google Drive account(s), all computing devices in her possession and any other account or device on which she may have stored Pfizer’s confidential information or trade secrets.

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