BeiGene Can’t Toss AbbVie Trade Secrets Suit Over Cancer Therapy

BeiGene Ltd. failed to convince a federal judge to dismiss AbbVie Inc.'s lawsuit accusing the biotechnology company of hiring its former scientist to steal trade secrets to create a cancer treatment now in clinical trials.

BeiGene’s arguments “rely on inapposite cases, ignore Circuit precedent, and would require the Court to draw inferences in their favor and not AbbVie’s,” Judge Jeffrey I. Cummings of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said in a Tuesday opinion denying its motion to dismiss.

The complaint included sufficient details, Cummings ruled, noting AbbVie’s description of compound designs BeiGene allegedly misappropriated to ...