As Cornerstone Research reported earlier this year in “Securities Class Action Filings: 2016 Year in Review,” attorneys representing shareholder plaintiffs filed 270 securities class actions in 2016, which is a 44 percent increase from both the 188 actions filed in 2015 and the historical yearly average of 188 filings during the 1997 to 2015 time period. Although shareholder objections to merger and acquisition transactions account for most of this surge, traditional securities class action filings alone rose 11 percent from 2015 to 2016.
Consistent with this trend, the number of new filings against biotechnology (biopharmaceutical) and pharmaceutical companies increased 74 percent—from 31 actions in 2015 to 54 cases in 2016. According to our review of federal court dockets, 20 of the lawsuits filed against biotech and pharma companies in 2016 involve claims that the defendants failed to disclose negative information about their lead drug product’s prospects for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). As is typical in such actions, these complaints allege that the defendants failed to timely disclose disappointing clinical trial data and communications from the FDA/EMA.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
