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SAN FRANCISCO — A former Genentech Inc. computer programmer agreed to pay $76,000 to settle charges she profited from inside information about a pivotal drug experiment, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. 

News of the failed experiment sent the shares of a Genentech partner company plummeting, which allowed Lei Wang, 32, to reap an illegal windfall, the SEC said. 

The case is the latest scandal to hit the sagging biotechnology sector that allegedly involves an insider using the unpublished results of a clinical trial to profit on the stock market.