Lawsuit says employee took cancer treatment secrets

Serenex sued former contract chemist Yunsheng Huang, contending he engaged in "international industrial espionage" and gave information to companies that sought overseas patents using the stolen data.

Corporate espionage is a serious and increasing problem for companies whose fortunes are tied to their intellectual property, especially as more firms compete in a global market.

Serenex, which has 30 employees, was testing an experimental cancer drug in humans. The company reported last month that it had raised $26 million (€19 million) in venture capital, and has raised $81 million (€59 million) since its founding in 2001.

The lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, also named two Chinese companies _ Beijing Gylongli Sci. & Tech. Co. and GYLL Biomedtech _ along with Tongxiang Zhang, the man who ran the firms, according to the lawsuit.

Both firms listed Huang's address in Apex as their U.S. office, and Serenex lawyer Jonathan Sasser said Huang "holds himself out as their representative in America."

Serenex filed the lawsuit to protect its products and wanted to be "absolutely sure no one is going to be making any spurious claims that they have any rights" to the research, Sasser said.

The lawsuit said Huang was fired by Serenex in February. But his attorney, Walter Schmidlin, said Huang "left on good terms" and denies any wrongdoing. Schmidlin said Serenex offered no proof Huang took documents.

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