Tekmira Pharmaceuticals this week announced that it has filed a notice of civil claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia alleging that “certain individuals” from AlCana Technologies wrongly took “thousands of confidential documents” containing Tekmira information and trade secrets.
Tekmira said it is also seeking an injunction for the return of the documents and derivative materials, which all relate to proprietary lipid technology.
The alleged theft, according to Tekmira, was discovered during the discovery phase of its ongoing litigation with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and AlCana.
As reported by Gene Silencing News, Tekmira sued Alnylam earlier this year for allegedly misappropriating trade secrets related to its proprietary siRNA-delivery technologies (GSN 3/17/2011). Tekmira later expanded its suit to include AlCana.
Alnylam has denied any wrongdoing and countersued Tekmira for, among other things, violating provisions in the companies' partnership agreements to handle disagreements through “confidential and non-public alternative dispute resolution procedures.”