Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of all persons or entities who acquired Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. (NYSE:EBS) securities between January 11, 2016 and June 21, 2016 (the “Class Period”).
The lawsuit charges Emergent and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Emergent is a specialty biopharmaceutical company. Emergent’s anthrax vaccine, BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed), is the only one licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In September 2011, Emergent entered into a five-year procurement contract with the U.S. government for 44.75 million doses of BioThrax. By the start of the Class Period, Emergent was reporting it had sold all of its BioThrax on hand and was working on a massive expansion of its BioThrax production facilities.
The lawsuit alleges that during the Class Period, defendants issued materially false and misleading statements regarding the company’s business and financial prospects. Specifically, with no reasonable basis to believe that the company’s renewal of its contract with the U.S. government would call for the same level of, much less increased, purchases of BioThrax, Emergent claimed it remained on track to receive the lucrative renewal of its five-year exclusive anthrax vaccine procurement contract. Emergent also repeatedly emphasized an ongoing strong demand for BioThrax in light of the U.S. government’s funding of Emergent’s massive expansion of its BioThrax production facility, claiming with no reasonable basis that the expansion would enable the company to manufacture some 20 to 25 million additional doses of BioThrax annually, which the U.S. government would purchase over the following five-year period in order to build the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile of anthrax vaccine to 75 million doses. As a result of defendants’ materially false and misleading statements, Emergent common stock traded at artificially inflated prices, reaching a Class Period high of $43.95 per share, and enabling certain of the defendants to sell their personally held shares of Emergent common stock for proceeds of over $14.5 million.
Then on June 22, 2016, before the open of trading, Emergent announced that the U.S. government had issued two official solicitation notices indicating that it would only be purchasing 29.4 million doses of the BioThrax vaccine for its Strategic National Stockpile over the following five years – approximately one-third less than the 44.75 million doses in the original contract and far less than the 75 million doses the company had led the investment community to believe the U.S. government sought to purchase. Emergent also disclosed that instead of more first-generation BioThrax anthrax vaccine, the U.S. government was seeking to procure a newer, faster- working next-generation anthrax vaccine, once one was approved, and that it was putting its supply bid for the rest of its anthrax vaccine procurement out to other companies, such that Emergent stood to lose its lucrative exclusivity.
Following this news, the price of Emergent stock declined from a close of $39.32 per share on June 21, 2016 to a close of $31.33 per share on June 22, 2016.
If you acquired Emergent securities during the Class Period or continue to hold shares purchased prior to the Class Period, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters please contact J. Brandon Walker, Esq. by email at investigations@bespc.com, or telephone at (212) 355-4648, or by filling out this contact form. There is no cost or obligation to you.
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a New York-based law firm concentrating in commercial and securities litigation. For additional information, please go to www.bespc.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160720006428/en/
Contacts:
J. Brandon Walker, Esq.,
212-355-4648
investigations@bespc.com
