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Court Orders Health Department and Board of Pharmacy to Protect Biomed Comm, Inc. Trade Secrets Contact: Seattle, WA Monday, January 28, 2008 –King County, Superior Court found that DOH committed trade secrets violations and thus ordered Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and its Board of Pharmacy (BOP) to protect Biomed Comm. Inc’s (BMC), property rights. BMC is a small biotechnology company that sells patented homeopathic proteins and had asked the DOH help it expand into manufacturing its products. The court's order provided that BMC's manufacturing instructions for patented homeopathic proteins, dilution instructions, sales profiles and other business trade secrets were entitled to protection The Honorable Judge Mertel stated, "The court having reviewed the pleadings ...finds that the Administrative Record, filed in two Superior Court appeal cases related to the DOH and BOP shall be sealed for the reason that the records contain proprietary and trade secret information of BMC…. I am disturbed that the DOH and BOP would have business trade secrets in the public record.” Barbara Brewitt, Ph.D., CEO of BMC stated, “The DOH exposed competitive trade secrets in the public record.” These business trade secrets provided nothing material in the DOH case against Brewitt, nor in the BOP case against BMC. State laws specifically protect against such violations via the Uniform Trade Secret Act. BMC corporate attorney said in his oral argument to Judge Mertel “DOH knowingly violated the law and exposed BMC trade secrets to the public.” Judge Mertel agreed and ordered the records sealed. “Unfortunately, trade secret espionage is common, motivated by a desperate need for new product discovery, particularly products that have been proven safe and clinically effective” said Brewitt. “I never anticipated DOH would participate in such activities,” stated Brewitt. Uniform trade secret and anti-competitive laws are designed to stop these activities. Innovation by leading-edge biotechnology companies is fundamental to the economy of Washington State. BMC’s trade secrets in homeopathy are of great value to any competitor wishing market share in this arena. “DOH's public release of this information creates an opportunity for competitors to take advantage of an established position in the marketplace while BMC is distracted by having to deal with state initiated litigation” says Brewitt. BMC is not a drug company, as claimed by the DOH. It markets patented homeopathic Cell Signal Enhancer® products, nationally and globally. “The products are revolutionary, recombinant, and based on modern science plus they have a level of safety that is unparalleled by any other modern biomedical technology from gene therapy to stem cells” says Brewitt. BMC was incorporated in 1996 with its first round of financing focused on performing double-blind placebo controlled clinical studies, the clinical trial gold standard, for product efficacy. Given the remarkable success in the clinical studies, BMC zealously protected its trade secrets for the benefit of its 94 shareholders' investment interests. Robert N. Meals, lawyer in the BMC's original case said in his response brief "Agents of the DOH and BOP obtained numerous documents from the company's offices in Woodinville and Seattle, Washington, under false pretenses." BMC is seeking royalty payments from the State of Washington for exposure of business biotechnology trade secrets to anyone requesting them.
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