Novo Nordisk Handed Loss in Noncompete Feud With Rival | New Jersey Law Journal

Novo Nordisk Handed Loss in Noncompete Feud With Rival | New Jersey Law Journal

by Mike Scarcella// National Law Journal

A Boston federal trial judge has refused to immediately stop a former Novo Nordisk Inc. employee from working at a rival company, a defeat for the pharmaceutical giant as it fights in courts across the country to enforce noncompete agreements amid a series of departures.

Novo Nordisk, a Danish company with U.S. headquarters in Plainsboro, is locked in a dispute with California-based rival BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. in courts in Massachusetts, Texas, New York and California. Last month, a Texas judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order against a former Novo Nordisk employee.

Lawyers from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius representing Novo Nordisk have accused BioMarin of leading a campaign to “systematically raid Novo Nordisk’s hemophilia sales force to launch BioMarin’s directly-competitive hemophilia therapies.” Former Novo Nordisk employees in some cases are the plaintiffs, contesting the validity of workplace agreements that restrict jumping to competing companies.

“It is not clear that Novo and BioMarin are competitors given the different types of treatment each offers to hemophilia patients and the fact that use of the therapies is not mutually exclusive,” U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts said in her Feb. 5 order denying both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.

Burroughs also noted that former Novo Nordisk sales official Thomas Russomano’s employment “was consistently unstable as his position was eliminated in both 2016 and 2018, and his territory shifted repeatedly.” The judge determined the noncompete provisions of a 2016 agreement were no longer in effect.