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One litigation trend that I have been following on this site since the initial coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. in March 2020 is the incidence of COVID-19-related securities class action litigation. Even though the outbreak is now well into its third year, these coronavirus-related cases continue to be filed. In the latest example of this phenomenon, on November 8, 2022, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against Eiger Biopharmaceuticals in connection with the company’s efforts to develop a COVID-19 treatment. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint in the case can be found here.
Continue Reading Biopharma Company Hit with COVID-Related Securities Suit

As I have noted in numerous posts on this site, since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, plaintiffs’ lawyers have filed a host of coronavirus-related securities class action lawsuits. As I also noted, the plaintiffs’ track record in these cases has been mixed at best, with a number of the cases being dismissed. In the latest example of the hurdles the plaintiffs are facing in these cases, a federal court has entered an order dismissing the COVID-19 related securities suit that was filed against the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca relating to the company’s troubled efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. A copy of the September 12, 2022 opinion in the case can be found here.
Continue Reading AstraZeneca COVID-19-Related Securities Suit Dismissed

Just as the COVID-19 virus continues to represent a threat to human populations, companies continue to explore possible alternatives for the treatment of the disease and its symptoms. As in any initiative built around developing and testing unproven products or processes, a number of these efforts to develop coronavirus treatments and therapies are unsuccessful. In some instances, litigation ensues after these unsuccessful efforts. A lawsuit filed last week against a biopharmaceutical company exemplifies the way this sequence of events can lead to litigation, in turn sustaining the ongoing phenomenon of coronavirus-related securities litigation filings that began at the time of the initial COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. in March 2020.
Continue Reading Biopharma Company Latest to Get Hit With COVID-19-Related Securities Suit

The COVID-19-related securities litigation wave has now been around long enough that companies that were sued early on in the pandemic are now being sued again based on more recent developments. Co-Diagnostics, a diagnostic testing company that was sued in the early months of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. in 2020, has now been sued again in a separate securities class action lawsuit based on the company’s disclosures surrounding its release of its second quarter 2022 financial results. A copy of the new complaint against Co-Diagnostics can be found here.
Continue Reading Diagnostic Testing Company Hit with COVID-19-Related Securities Suit

The changes and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to roil companies’ business operations and financial results. The pandemic’s effects, and the ensuing shifts in business operations and strategic decision-making, are also in some instances continuing to result in securities class action litigation. In the latest example of these phenomena, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities suit against the mental health care service provider LifeStance Health Group, Inc. and certain of its executives. The complaint alleges that the Registration Statement prepared in connection with the company’s June 2021 IPO did not adequately disclose the impact on the company’s operations and finances from the lifting of the government stay-at-home orders and did not disclose the pandemic’s impact on the company’s physician workforce. A copy of the August 8, 2022 complaint against the company can be found here.
Continue Reading Mental Health Services Company Hit with Post-IPO COVID-Related Securities Suit

It is so interesting to me that, notwithstanding the passage of time since the initial coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. in March 2020, plaintiff shareholders continue to file COVID-19-related securities class action lawsuits — as we saw, for example, in the infrastructure overcapacity lawsuit filed last week against Amazon. In yet another case showing how COVID-related concerns are continuing to roil companies and attract securities suits, earlier this week a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against developmental-stage pharmaceutical company Molecular Partners AG in part owing to setbacks the company encountered in its efforts to develop a COVID-19 treatment candidate. A copy of the July 12, 2022 lawsuit filed against Molecular Partners can be found here.
Continue Reading Drug Development Company Hit with COVID-19-Related Securities Suit

It has been well over two years since the initial coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., but the pandemic continues to affect businesses. Many companies that found themselves making business decisions at the outset of the pandemic are still dealing with the consequences of those decisions. In at least some cases, the consequences from those business decisions are leading to securities class action litigation, as the lawsuit filed this week against Amazon shows.
Continue Reading Amazon Hit With Securities Suit Over Pandemic-Related Infrastructure Overcapacity

In the now more than two-and-a-quarter years since the initial COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., a significant number of COVID-related securities class action lawsuits have been filed. What is surprising is not that the suits have been filed; rather, it is that even at this late date, the COVID-related suits continue to be filed. As time has gone by, however, it has become increasingly challenging to say with clarity whether a particular lawsuit is or is not “COVID-related.” The securities class action lawsuit filed late last week against online information platform, Yext, illustrates the increasing difficulty of making the COVID-related categorization, as discussed below.
Continue Reading The Growing Challenge of Identifying COVID-Related Securities Suits

Almost from the very outset of COVID-19 in early 2020, investors and others have filed pandemic-related securities suits and other claims against companies and their executives. Even though the initial outbreak is now nearly 27 months in the past, claims activity continues. In the latest development, a grand jury has returned an indictment against a  health care company’s former CEO concerning statements the CEO made in April 2020 about the company’s ability to profit from sales of COVID-19 rapid tests. The SEC filed a parallel enforcement action against the company and the CEO as well.
Continue Reading DOJ, SEC Press COVID 19-Related Charges Against Health Care Company, CEO

The global COVID-19 pandemic is now into its third year and it continues to affect the economy and the business environment. The following guest post takes a look at the pandemic’s continuing impact and reviews the possibility that the ongoing effects could increase the number of corporate insolvencies in the UK. This paper was written by Thomas Harris, a Senior Underwriter in the London D&O team of Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance UK; Ben Barker, head of Executive & Professional Lines Claims, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance UK; James Wickes, a Partner in RPC’s FI/D&O team in London; and Paul Bagon, a Partner in RPC’s Restructuring & Insolvency team in London. A version of this article was recently published as BHSI /RPC client alerts via their LinkedIn homepages. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the authors’ article.…
Continue Reading Guest Post: COVID-19 and the Impact on UK Corporate Insolvencies