Gilead Worker Accused of Sex Harassment Advances Defamation Suit

Gilead Sciences Inc. must face a fired employee’s lawsuit alleging its response to a co-worker’s false sexual harassment report about him damaged his reputation, a Virginia federal judge ruled.

The former executive institutional specialist didn’t need to assert that the biopharmaceutical company should’ve known the charge against him was false or recklessly disregarded that it might be false, the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia said. He seeks to hold Gilead vicariously liable for defamation under state tort law, not directly liable, making the company’s “state of mind” and whether it acted with actual malice “irrelevant,” the ...