Five Children's Hospital of Philadelphia employees are facing a lawsuit from Iceland-based DeCode Genetics. The employees, who previously worked for the biotech company, are accused of stealing trade secrets and breach of contract. The point of contention is the hospital's plan to collect DNA from 100,000 children. "The hospital…intends to use the database of DNA profiles to find links between genes and common conditions like obesity. Publicly traded DeCode operates a similar database in Iceland," reports The Wall Street Journal. Hospital officials say that researchers have done nothing wrong and that they will defend their right to compile the database.
For more on the lawsuit:
- read this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)