On a conference call of drug company officials in March 2004, Merck & Co. Inc. in-house patent prosecutor Philippe Durette assured representatives of Pharamasset Inc. that he could be trusted with information on its “crown jewel” hepatitis C research. That was the first in a series of lies Durette would tell over the course of the next decade that would end with the reversal this week of a $200 million patent infringement verdict Merck won against Gilead Sciences Inc.

Want to read this article? Try Law360 FREE for seven days