$27 million jury award in Bucks County tops previous record: report

A group of scientists who worked for a pharma company in Bensalem has been awarded $26.6 million after they countersued their employer who fired them, claiming they swiped trade secrets, a Philadelphia news site reports.

The award is the biggest in Bucks County, topping $11 million awarded to a woman in 2019 who suffered disfiguring injuries during the birth of her child, PhillyVoice said this week.

The case involved five scientists employed at Sigmapharm Laboratories, which makes drugs to treat various diseases, including psoriasis, hepatitis B and others.

Ten years ago, they were fired by the company CEO Spiridon Spireas, who then sued the five for $849 million.

The five had quit other jobs to work for the company, after Spireas offered them shares in the firm, which he launched in 2005, according to the article.. They’d “become millionaires” the scientists claimed Spireas told them in their countersuit.

“But the initial terms Spireas offered the scientists were all based on an oral agreement. And about a year into their employment, the CEO required them to sign a new employee agreement in order to retain their jobs. They were each given non-voting shares in the company of between 1-4%, which would only vest fully after 20 years of employment. If they were fired for cause before that time, they would forfeit their stakes and the company could purchase them for $1,” PhillyVoice reports.

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The scientists had studied under Spireas in college.

"This was about trust and greed. A graduate professor is someone you look up to with honor," their lawyer, Gavin Lentz, said in the account. "They trusted him and he saw how much their small percentages were going to earn them and said, 'To hell with this,' and took it back."

According to the web site, the five scientists tried to renegotiate their contracts in 2014, but they were fired instead. Work computers and email were seized for evidence the scientists were double-dealing with other clients, but Sigmapharm, quoting the scientists lawyer, “came up with absolutely nothing to show for it.”

"Their suit against us was for ($849 million). The jury awarded them zero and awarded us ($26.6 million)," lawyer Lentz said.

An appeal by Sigmapharm is expected.

JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.