By: Aaron Kim, ITMG Insider Threat Analyst
AltaThera Pharmaceuticals LLC filed a lawsuit against Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA, Academics Pharmaceuticals and John C. Somberg, M.D alleging breach of contract, civil conspiracy and misappropriation of trade secrets.
According to the lawsuit, AltaThera is a hospital-focused pharmaceutical company that is focused to addressing unmet medical needs including developing innovative methods to repurpose existing drugs and administer treatments. The lawsuit further states that one specific innovation is AltaThera’s method for administering Sotalol IV in a way that reduces a patient’s time spent in the hospital from three days to just one day.
AltaThera states that they were able to obtain FDA approval after investing millions of dollars over several years to develop its Sotalol IV method. The confidential information and trade secrets were shared with Dr. Somberg who was a long-time consultant of AltaThera and his consulting companies, Academic Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Hyloris. According to AltaThera, Dr. Somberg and his consulting companies entered into an agreement to not disclose any of AltaThera’s confidential information and not to use it for their own business. However, the confidential information and trade secrets was used to bring in a competing drug to the market called Dofetilide IV. According to the complaint, by the time AltaThera became aware of the situation, the defendants were already two years into their efforts to obtain patent protection and FDA approval for the competing drug.
AltaThera filed the present complaint alleging violations of the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Illinois Trade Secret Act, breach of contract, tortious interference, unjust enrichment, fraudulent concealment, breach of fiduciary duty and civil conspiracy.
For relief, AltaThera seeks compensatory and consequential damages, disgorgement of profits, an order correcting inventorship for the defendant’s patent application for Dofetilide IV, a declaration declaring AltaThera owns the rights to the Sotalol IV and any patents that issue from it, along with attorney’s fees and costs.
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