Although in this particular case, there was never any danger of the plot coming to fruition, since the only people that Ferdaus was working with were undercover FBI agents, it does begthequestion as to whether such a plot could succeed in the first place.
The stories of both Orexigen and Intermune begthe same question: is the Food and Drug Administration going to begin feeling more pressure to approve new medicines more quickly?
If accurate, these leaks beg an important question: Would the United States be able to ascertain and judge such actions if Soviet communications were transmitted by secure fiber-optic lines?