Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc (NYSE: ) filed a lawsuit against a long-serving employee alleging that she stole confidential information, including COVID-19 vaccine records, while she was moving to another company.

Pfizer filed a lawsuit against Chun Xiao Li in San Diego Federal Court on Tuesday. She claimed that Chun Xiao Li violated her confidentiality agreement when she uploaded more than 12,000 files to her personal account and device from her company laptop.

These materials are alleged to include an Sept. 24, “playbook”, which contains internal assessments and recommendations regarding the Pfizer/BioNTech CoVID-19 vaccine. They also discuss Pfizer’s relationship and partnership with Germany, as well as presentations on cancer antibodies.

Pfizer claimed that Li, an assistant director of statistics tried to hide her tracks repeatedly, even using a decoy laptop to trick it into believing what she had done with the files.

Li, a New York-based pharmaceutical company, claimed she had misled Pfizer about the contents of her pills, their timing, whereabouts, and how they were taken.

Pfizer announced that Li would be leaving the company after 15 years. The company appears to offer Li a place at Xencor Inc. (NASDAQ) Inc., a California company in clinical stage, focusing on treatment for cancer and autoimmune disease, starting Nov. 29.

Li couldn’t be reached immediately to comment via her LinkedIn account. Xencor, which is not a defendant in this lawsuit declined to comment.

Pfizer stated that competitors had been trying to recruit employees, “relentlessly”, especially in 2021.

U.S. district judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo placed a temporary restraining order against Li’s use of Pfizer’s trade secrets on Tuesday and stated that Pfizer lawyers could review any accounts or devices she may have used to store them.

A Dec. 9 hearing was scheduled by the judge to hear about a longer injunction.