Guardant Health has initiated legal action against Natera, alleging that Natera poached its employees and stole trade secrets. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, claims that Natera aggressively targeted and recruited bioinformatics scientists from Guardant to bolster its position in the early cancer test industry.
The complaint further alleges that former Guardant employees took trade secrets with them to Natera. A Natera spokesperson responded via email, stating that the complaint is “riddled with baseless allegations” and that the company will “vigorously defend” itself against Guardant’s claims.
The lawsuit also names two former employees, Alan Selewa and Catalin Barbacioru, accusing them of transferring over 6,500 “critical trade secret files” from Guardant’s IT systems without authorization or notice. Guardant, which developed the Shield blood test – the first FDA-approved primary screening option for colorectal cancer — claims that Natera’s actions were driven by a desire to compete with its advanced cancer detection technology.
According to the lawsuit, Natera’s alleged actions are an effort to circumvent legitimate competition. “Unable to develop a competitor to Guardant’s early cancer detection technology through legitimate competition, Natera now aims to poach Guardant’s employees and have them surreptitiously provide Natera with Guardant’s protected Trade Secrets,” the court documents state.
Selewa is accused of transferring approximately 90 files to a Google Drive before leaving Guardant in January. The lawsuit indicates that these files contain information about a multi-cancer detection test that Guardant is currently developing. Barbacioru allegedly transferred around 6,500 Guardant files to an external USB hard drive shortly before departing for Natera.
The lawsuit also includes three other bioinformatics scientists who left Guardant for Natera but are not listed as defendants, along with 50 unnamed individuals. Guardant plans to amend the lawsuit as it identifies additional defendants. All defendants are accused of misappropriating trade secrets. Guardant asserts that Natera received and utilized the files allegedly taken by the former employees, knowing those trade secrets were acquired improperly.
This lawsuit follows a previous win for Guardant against Natera. Last year, a U.S. jury awarded Guardant $292.5 million after concluding that Natera had made “false and misleading statements” to promote its Signatera cancer test over Guardant’s Reveal product. A judge is scheduled to consider post-trial briefings from both companies during a hearing in March.
