Beam Therapeutics Alleges Chinese VC-Backed Biotech Startup Stole Intellectual Property

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Gene-editing company Beam Therapeutics alleges that one of its scientists stole intellectual property and used it to co-found a Chinese company that struck a deal with venture capital firms. The allegation comes at a time of escalating tensions between U.S. biotech companies and their Chinese counterparts.

Beam, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit late last week, accusing one of its former scientists, Zi Jun “Emma” Wang, of accessing the company’s electronic lab notebooks late at night and on weekends and then using the information she gleaned to create a company called YolTech Therapeutics.

Shanghai-based YolTech recently struck a deal with venture capital firms RA Capital and RTW to form a new startup called Serapha Bio. YolTech and Serapha are named as defendants in this case.