deCODE lawsuit settled

deCODE genetics, Inc. and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have settled a lawsuit, in which deCODE alleged top executives violated employment contracts and stole corporate secrets when they left the Icelandic research firm last year to establish a genomics center at the hospital.The suit, which triggered some dramatic testimony, raised questions about potential conflicts between private-sector and academic research organizations.Terms of the settlement announced Thursday (June 14) were not released, but in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, deCODE said the four CHOP employees, including the director of the hospital's Center for Applied Genomics, have agreed not to use or disclose confidential deCODE information. The company also said CHOP had agreed to pay deCODE an undisclosed sum and the suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning neither side can refile claims related to this dispute."I am pleased that we have managed to settle this case with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which has a history of being a noble institution that serves its community with distinction," deCODE CEO Kari Stefansson said in a statement.Philip R. Johnson, CHOP's chief scientific officer, told The Scientist the suit had been a distraction, particularly during a trial last fall. Still, he said the new genomics center has been able to make significant progress in less than a year, and expects to release new findings in several journals over the next few weeks. Johnson declined to give specifics about the settlement, referring to the hospital's official announcement which said the case has been dismissed in its entirety, with all requests for injunctive relief and damages withdrawn. The suit, which raised questions about potential conflicts between private-sector and academic research organizations, was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia Sept. 26. deCODE had sought an emergency court order that would have prevented four former employees from continuing their work at CHOP for at least two years. The employees named in the suit are Hakon Hakonarson, the center's director and deCODE's former vice president for business development; Struan Grant, associate director of the center; Robert Skraban, administrative director; and Jonathon Bradfield, a bioinformatics specialist.Lawyers for CHOP said deCODE's interpretation of its employment contracts would effectively prevent any scientist from ever working in genetics research after leaving the company. CHOP also argued that institutions receiving National Institutes of Health grants are obligated to try to turn their discoveries into cures under the Bayh-Dole Act.During the trial, Stefansson testified that CHOP's plans to collect genetic data on 100,000 patients in order to develop commercial treatments puts the academic institution in direct competition with his firm, which has genotyped 100,000 Icelanders."It was a stretch to say that we would ever be competing against a private company," said Johnson. The CHOP center is working on projects to learn more about asthma, obesity, allergy, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, juvenile diabetes and other pediatric illnesses.A spokesperson for deCODE declined to comment.Susan Warner mail@the-scientist.comLinks within this article:S. Warner, "deCODE sues former employees," The Scientist, October 11, 2007. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/25040/S. Warner, "Former deCODE VP takes the stand," The Scientist, October 16, 2007. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/25085/"Large-scale genomics project will hunt genes behind common childhood diseases," CHOP Press Release, June 7, 2006 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/chop-lgp060606.phpR. Lewis, "Iceland's public supports database, but scientists object," The Scientist, July 19, 1999 http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/18638

deCODE lawsuit settled

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