Prime Therapeutics LLC v. Beatty

354 F. Supp. 3d 957
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedNovember 1, 2018
DocketFile No. 18-cv-02715 (ECT/KMM)
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 354 F. Supp. 3d 957 (Prime Therapeutics LLC v. Beatty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prime Therapeutics LLC v. Beatty, 354 F. Supp. 3d 957 (D. Me. 2018).

Opinion

Eric C. Tostrud, United States District Court

Prime Therapeutics LLC ("Prime") seeks a preliminary injunction forbidding a former employee, Ashley D. Beatty ("Beatty"), from performing some (but not all) activities in a new job she began recently with Maxor National Pharmacy Services, LLC ("Maxor"). Prime alleges that, if not limited by an injunction, Beatty will inevitably disclose Prime's confidential business information to Maxor. According to Prime, disclosure of this information would violate Minnesota and federal trade-secret statutes and breach a contract between Prime and Beatty. Prime also alleges that the disclosure of its confidential information would cause it to suffer irreparable harm. The Court will deny Prime's motion, primarily because the law and facts do not show at this preliminary stage that Prime is likely to prevail on the merits or to suffer irreparable harm.

I

A

Prime and Maxor are pharmacy benefit managers ("PBMs"). Overman Decl. [ECF No. 8] ¶ 1; Wheeler Decl. [ECF No. 31] ¶ 16. A high-level description of the business of PBMs helps in understanding this lawsuit and Prime's preliminary-injunction motion. Fundamentally, PBMs administer prescription-drug plans.1 Beatty Decl.

*962[ECF No. 33-1] ¶ 8; see Overman Decl. ¶ 4; Wheeler ¶ 14. To that end, PBMs facilitate relationships with various participants in the prescription-drug market. See Beatty Decl. ¶ 14; Overman Decl. ¶ 5; Wheeler Decl. ¶ 54.

From a bird's-eye view, the prescription-drug market starts with drug manufacturers. Cf. Shrayber Decl. [ECF No. 33], Ex. 6 at 3. Drug manufacturers sell their products through wholesalers and pharmacies, and pharmacies deliver prescription drugs to consumers, usually based on the terms of consumers' health insurance. Cf. id. at 2. PBMs may be involved at each step in this process. For example, PBMs may negotiate with drug manufacturers for rebates and inclusion on a formulary (a list of drugs approved for coverage). See Beatty Decl. ¶ 9. PBMs may negotiate with pharmacies for discounts in exchange for including the pharmacies in a health plan's network. See Overman Decl. ¶¶ 2, 4. PBMs may work with health-benefit providers (including insurers, self-insured entities, and federal Medicare and Medicaid programs) to design benefit plans. See Beatty Decl. ¶ 8; Overman Decl. ¶ 7. PBMs may also facilitate the dispensing of drugs to consumers by verifying coverage, calculating copays and coinsurance, and otherwise processing and paying prescription-drug claims. See Beatty Decl. ¶ 9; Overman Decl. ¶ 4. Some PBMs own and operate pharmacies. See Wheeler Decl. ¶ 23. Others conduct pharmacoeconomic research and clinical trials. See Overman Decl. ¶ 4; Shrayber Decl., Ex. 5 at 15-16. Still others provide consulting services related to the prescription-drug market. See Wheeler Decl. ¶ 24.

Prime and Maxor dispute to some degree what specific PBM services each of them provides and the extent to which the two compete. Prime says there is meaningful overlap between its business activities and Maxor's. See Second Overman Decl. [ECF No. 38] ¶¶ 7-8. Prime advances this position in an effort to establish that Beatty is working for a competitor and is more likely to rely upon Prime's confidential information in her new position with Maxor. To show the opposite, Maxor says that it and Prime are not really competitors and that Beatty will have no use for Prime's confidential information in her new job. See Wheeler Decl. ¶ 55. More on this dispute later. For the time being, it seems fair to observe that Prime and Maxor are PBMs, that each engages in some of the activities described in the previous paragraph, that both engage in at least some similar activities, and that each engages in some activities the other does not.

B

Beatty is a twenty-year PBM-industry veteran who began working for Prime in 2016. See Beatty Decl. ¶ 3; Shrayber Decl., Ex. 3. Beatty's employment with Prime was contingent upon her signing a contract entitled "Agreement Regarding Non-Disclosure of Confidential Information, Assignment of Inventions, Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation" ("Agreement") [ECF No. 1-1, Ex. B]. Friese Decl. [ECF No. 9] ¶ 6 & Ex. A. Beatty signed the Agreement on April 5, 2016. Agreement at 8.

*963Principally at issue in this motion are the Agreement's non-disclosure and non-competition terms. The Agreement's non-disclosure term requires Beatty to "hold all Confidential Information in the strictest confidence both during and after " her employment with Prime. Id. § 1.B (emphasis added). Elsewhere, the Agreement defines "Confidential Information" as information "whether oral, written, or in electronic form or committed to Employee's memory, which is not generally known by persons not employed by, or parties to contracts with, [Prime]." Id. § 1.A. The Agreement's non-compete-quoted here in its entirety in light of its significance to this motion-reads as follows:

Non-Competition. During Employee's employment and for a period of twelve (12) months following Employee's termination of employment with Company ("Restricted Period"), whether such termination is at the initiative of Employee or Company and regardless of the reason for termination, Employee shall not, directly or indirectly, individually or collectively (including as an officer, director, employee, advisor, agent, consultant or otherwise), render the same or substantially the same services to an entity or operation engaged in the same or similar Business as Company anywhere in the United States. Subject to the foregoing, it is agreed that Employee is free to work for or provide services to a competitor of Company, provided that: (a) such work or services does not include, directly or indirectly, any responsibilities for, or have any connection with, a Competitive Product (defined below) during the Restricted Period or (b) Employee has not assumed a position with a competitor that would lead to the inevitable disclosure of Confidential Information. "Competitive Product" means any product or service that was marketed, sold or under development by Company during the twelve months preceding Employee's termination of employment and: (a) (i) is of the same general type and (ii) is used for the same or similar purposes as a Company product or service; or (b) competes for the same clients, providers or suppliers that Company markets or sells to or purchases from, or is developing to market or sell to or purchase from.

Id. § 3.A. The Agreement also contains choice-of-law and choice-of-forum provisions, which state that Minnesota law shall govern "[t]he validity, enforceability, construction and interpretation of this Agreement" and that Beatty consents to jurisdiction in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. Id. § 5.C.

Beatty held two jobs during her employment with Prime. Beatty's first job was as Vice President of Networks in the Pharmacy and Network Services Department. Friese Decl. ¶ 6; Beatty Decl. ¶ 6. The parties do not describe Beatty's duties in this position. In June 2017, Prime promoted Beatty to the position of Chief Innovation and Network Services Officer. Prime characterizes Beatty's role in this position as "a senior leader ... tasked with ... setting the strategic direction of [her] teams ...

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Bluebook (online)
354 F. Supp. 3d 957, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prime-therapeutics-llc-v-beatty-med-2018.