Apotex Inc., the generic-drug giant founded by murdered billionaire Barry Sherman, has been waging a year-long court battle against an ex-employee who was fired for allegedly stealing millions of dollars’ worth of pharmaceutical trade secrets from a laboratory computer—in the hopes of launching a rival company in his native Pakistan.
Court documents obtained by
Maclean’s reveal the existence of a high-stakes internal investigation launched by Canada’s largest drug-maker in January 2017—and the urgent lawsuit that followed, aimed at recouping what the company describes as “highly sensitive” intellectual property of “enormous” value. Apotex is so determined to retrieve any missing data that, at one point during the ongoing litigation, company lawyers demanded that the former staffer be imprisoned for 45 days for contempt of court because he “willfully and deliberately” ignored a judge’s order to hand over USB drives, email passwords and other electronic devices believed to contain confidential information.
Mulazim Hussain, a veteran chemist who worked at Apotex’s research-and-development laboratory for more than a decade, was fired last year after the company discovered he had registered a private corporation and taken steps to construct his own generic-drug plant in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
. Sure are some loonies out there.... JMO