OPINION & ORDER Defendants Alkermes plc (“Alkermes”), Richard F. Pops, its Chief Executive Officer, and James M. Frates, its Chief Financial Officer, move to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint (the “Complaint”) under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Lead Plaintiff Local 731 I.B. of T. Private Scavenger and Garage Attendants Pension Trust Fund (“Local 731″) moves to strike various exhibits appended to Defendants’ motion. For the reasons that follow, Local 731′s motion to strike is granted in part and denied in part, and Defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted.BACKGROUNDThe allegations in the Complaint are presumed true for purposes of this motion. Alkermes is a global pharmaceutical company that markets and sells a product trade-named Vivitrol, an injectable, extended-release version of an opioid dependence medication called naltrexone. This securities fraud class action concerns statements that Defendants made touting Vivitrol’s sales growth and its effectiveness in treating opioid dependence. Local 731 claims that while Defendants crafted a narrative of organic, word-of-mouth growth in SEC filings and on investor conference calls, they concealed from investors a calculated and sustained campaign to market Vivitrol.Starting in June 2017, the truth began to emerge through a steady cascade of news articles that shed a critical light on Alkermes’ sales practices, academic studies that reached tepid conclusions as to Vivitrol’s relative effectiveness, and revelations of governmental scrutiny of Vivitrol. Based on a progressive decline in Alkermes’ stock price, plaintiffs assert claims against all Defendants for violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, as well as Section 20(a) claims against Pops and Frates.I. Opioid Dependence TreatmentsSince the 1980s, naltrexone has existed to treat opioid dependence. (Second Amended Complaint, ECF No. 34 (“Compl.”),
23-26.) In particular, naltrexone works by competing for the receptors in the brain that cause the “high” that one experiences from using opioids. However, several aspects of naltrexone contributed to its sparse use by the medical community. First, patients must endure a days-long detoxification process before beginning treatment. Second, naltrexone only provides a brief period of relief from opioid cravings and must be taken every day. Third, because it does not completely block the targeted brain receptors, its effects may be overcome with a sufficiently large quantity of opioids.Alkermes sought to improve on naltrexone by developing Vivitrol, an injectable version of naltrexone that extends relief from opioid cravings for 28 days. (Compl.
