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Barry Sherman and his wife Honey were found dead in their Toronto home in mid-December, with officials citing the cause of death as ligature neck compression. In a press conference Friday afternoon, police said they believe the couple was murdered in a targeted attack.

Sherman had stepped down as CEO in 2012, but continued to work long hours at the company he founded in 1974 and turned into a trailblazer in the generic pharmaceutical business. Apotex has more than 10,000 employees worldwide, with annual revenues of US$1.6 billion.

Many of the 6,000 people who attended the Shermans’ memorial service were Apotex employees, recognizable because they were wearing the corporate colour blue. Questions have swirled about the company’s plan for a future without its hard-working founder.

Desai has been caught up in a legal dispute with Apotex competitor Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. over trade secrets that his romantic partner, then-Teva employee Barinder Sandhu, allegedly leaked to him, allegations that have not been proven in court and that Apotex has filed a motion to dismiss. The case is currently in the pre-trial discovery phase.

Israel-based Teva filed the complaint in July, claiming Sandhu had been improperly using cloud storage, USB keys and other methods to transfer confidential documents from her work computer to Desai.

Teva alleges those documents included a communication from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about Product X, a generic drug it was developing. Teva alleges Desai and other Apotex employees circulated the document and discussed how to use it to improve sales of a competing product.