Absorption Pharmaceuticals has filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court of Nevada alleging that Reckitt Benckiser engaged in a ‘sham acquisition’ to steal proprietary information, and used that intel to bring to market its K-Y Duration product.

“Reckitt Benckiser approached our company in 2014, expressing an interest in buying Absorption Pharmaceuticals,” said Jeff Abraham, Absorption Pharmaceuticals’ CEO. “We already had an exciting offer on the table valued at approximately US$150 million for our business, but Reckitt Benckiser asked us to hold off because of its stated desire to acquire Absorption. At Reckitt Benckiser’s request, we shared our proprietary sales, marketing, and technical data as part of ‘due-diligence’ for Reckitt Benckiser’s supposed acquisition. We were shocked when we later learned the whole thing was a sham. As alleged in detail in our complaint, Reckitt Benckiser had never intended to buy our company. Instead, they intended to steal our proprietary information so they could launch a competing product using our marketing strategy and other trade secrets. Even worse, they have since set about to destroy Promescent® as a competitor by having our listing on Amazon.com hidden from the general public and stealing shelf space at key retailers.”

Absorption is seeking more than US$150 million in compensatory damages, exemplary damages, legal fees and an injunction to prevent Reckitt Benckiser from selling, distributing, marketing or otherwise commercially using its Duration product.