Viking Therapeutics accuses Chinese company of trade secret theft
California-based company alleges competitor stole secrets following a collaboration bid | Complaint says Chinese competitor founded a sister company to develop rival treatment for metabolic disorders.
California-based Viking Therapeutics has taken Ascletis Bioscience Co to court over the alleged theft of trade secrets related to its leading drug candidate.
In a lawsuit filed on 29 December at the US District Court for the Southern District of California, Viking said that it had shared confidential information about its drug candidate VK2809 with Ascletis while the pair evaluated a possible collaboration.
VK2809, which is currently in phase 2 clinical trials in the US, is a selective thyroid hormone receptor-beta (TRβ) agonist designed for the treatment of metabolic disorders, including high cholesterol, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
According to the suit, in 2016 and 2019, the parties signed confidential disclosure agreements while discussing potential collaborations.
Viking said that, in 2019, it provided Ascletis with access to over a decade’s worth “of highly proprietary trade secrets" about VK2809 to facilitate the potential business opportunity.
The confidential information and trade secrets included the specific formulation of VK2809, manufacturing and storage information, and pre-clinical and clinical trial information and data necessary for commercialisation.
“After reviewing the Viking Trade Secrets for over a month, Ascletis BioScience suddenly reversed course, claiming that it did not want a business collaboration with Viking,” said the suit.
It added: “Viking later discovered that the potential business collaboration that Ascletis BioScience proposed was actually a ruse to steal Viking’s VK2809 trade secrets, circumvent years of research and development, and release its own drug product to compete with Viking’s VK2809.”
Viking alleged that, six months after accessing the trade secrets Asceltis’ CEO founded a sister company, Gannex Pharma, to develop and commercialise a drug to treat NASH in direct competition to VK2809.
The suit further alleged that Gannex had “secretly” filed Chinese and US patents which contained Viking’s trade secrets and begun clinical trials on Ascletis’s drug product, ASC41.
Viking added that the breach of the confidentiality agreements and misappropriation of the trade secrets enabled Ascletis’ “development, testing, and commercialisation (including clinical trials) of ASC41 in a rapidly abbreviated period of time”.
“The head start that defendants obtained through misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, and tortious acts caused and continues to cause irreparable injury, financial loss, and harm to Viking,” said the suit.
Viking has asked the court for damages, injunctive relief and an order declaring that Viking is the owner of all right, title, and interest in the patent applications, patents and any other IP incorporating its confidential information.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
