One of the more distinctive litigation phenomena over the last several years has been the series of securities lawsuits filed against companies related to the opioid crisis. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have filed securities suits against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and even retailers. While a number of these lawsuits have resulted in settlements, several of them have also been dismissed. In the latest opioid-related securities suit to result in a dismissal, on August 17, 2022, the judge presiding over the opioid-related litigation pending against Endo International in the District of New Jersey granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss with prejudice. Although the dismissal is significant, there is more to be taken into account when assessing the opioid-related corporate and securities lawsuits.
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Guest Post: D&O Risks and Challenges for Pharmaceutical Companies and their Insurers
Companies in the pharmaceutical industry are frequent targets of securities class action lawsuits. In the following guest post, Tony Kriesel, Claims Specialist with IQUW; Elan Kandel, a Member of the Bailey Cavalieri law firm; and James Talbert, an Associate at Bailey Cavalieri, take a look at the reasons for the pharmaceutical industry’s high securities litigation frequency experience and at the implications of the lawsuit frequency for pharmaceutical companies and their insurers. They also consider the significance of the interrelated claims provision typically found in D&O insurance policies for securities claims involving pharmaceutical companies. 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.
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Biotech Bad Boy Shkreli Hit With Securities Class Action Lawsuit
I am sure that many of you, like me, felt a satisfying wave of schadenfreude when you heard the news last week that biotech bad boy Martin Shkreli had been arrested on securities fraud charges. Shkreli became the poster-child for drug company price-gouging after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, increased the price of Daraprim, a life-saving drug, by over 5,000 percent. However, his arrest is unrelated to his activities at Turing. Instead, his arrest relates to his previous activities as a hedge fund portfolio manager and involves a different biotech company, Retrophin Pharmaceuticals, which Shkreli founded and took public, and at which Shkreli had served as CEO until September 2014.
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Big Doings in Big Cases: Merck Settle Securities Suits for $688 Million, Facebook IPO Derivative Suits Dismissed
In what may be the largest settlement ever in securities class action litigation involving a pharmaceutical company, Merck has agreed to a combined settlement of $688 million to settle two related securities class action cases. The company’s February 14, 2013 press release announcing the settlements can be found here.
The lawsuits relate to