Don’t companies usually get patents on medicines? The formula becomes a matter of public record (i.e. not a secret) but legally protected from competition.
And if a company does have a trade secret formula, why provide it to a sales person? The sales person doesn’t need to know the formula, just what the formula does.
And what good would it do to “steal” the formula back? Wouldn’t Metromart have made copies?
And if one company did illegally obtain a trade secret from another company, wouldn’t the latter sue the former to prevent distribution?
Interesting how MoL is introducing a couple of more named characters.