Charlotte woman among 5 charged with scheme to steal GSK secrets

A woman who is a twin sister of a former scientists at GSK is charged with conspiracy to steal secrets from the drug giant. The sister, who was fired recently by GSK, also is charged along with three others.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia disclosed indictments in the case on Wednesday.

GSK (NYSE: GSK), which has major operations in RTP and Zebulon, said it had been cooperating in the investigation.

The group sought to steal secrets and provide them to companies in China, according to reports.

Yu Xue, was a senior-level manager and a “biotechnology expert at a Glaxo research facility in Pennsylvania with access to a wide array of secret information,” according to the BBC. She was fired recently. Her attorney denied the charges.

Tian Xue, her twin sister, is listed as living in Charlotte. Her attorney declined comment when contacted by the Wall Street Journal.

Yu Xue is alleged to have used a GSK email account from 2012 to 2015 “to send trade secrets and confidential information about at least a dozen products to her personal email account, and then forwarded the information to other people charged in the case,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “The documents included slide presentations about the design of certain drugs,” the paper added, citing the indictment.

Three of the alleged conspirators formed a company called Renopharma and two others in China, planning to develop drugs.

Also charged were Tao Li and Yan Mei of China and Lucy Xi of California. Xi formerly worked at GSK.