When British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC (“GSK”) announced last month that it was implementing a new global marketing strategy to transform the way it sells and markets drugs to both doctors and patients, many commentators were quick to announce that a fundamental shift in the pharmaceutical business was underway. While GSK’s announcement was significant in terms of precedence and scope, it is unclear at best whether other pharmaceutical companies will follow suit. [Read more...]
Will GSK’s Incentive Compensation And Speaker Program Initiatives Set The Tone For 2014?
January 8, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Using A Company’s “Intrinsic” Value In Defending Securities Fraud Suits
October 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
A recent securities class action lawsuit filed in a Connecticut federal court charges that Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and its CEO and CFO misled investors by failing in an adequate and timely fashion to disclose clinical information and FDA actions related to sovaprevir, an Achillion drug under study for the treatment of hepatitis infections. If the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company’s ability to fend off the allegations of the Complaint turns on the relationship between the Company’s “disclosures” and drops in its stock price (as the plaintiff and his lawyers would like), the Company may have a problem. However, as M&A lawyers are learning in the context of garden variety shareholder litigation and appraisal rights litigation, one available defense may lie in the Company’s ability to demonstrate the long-term “fair” or “intrinsic” value of its stock. [Read more...]
Plaintiff’s Lawyers File RICO Class Action Suit Against Abbott Over Depakote Off-Label Promotion
August 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment
A well-known plaintiff’s law firm with a stable of union pension fund clients has used the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), which was originally enacted in 1970 to combat organized crime, to file a class action lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories for the off-label promotions of Depakote. Unless Abbott and similarly situated big pharma companies intend to fork over hundreds of millions (if not billions) of more dollars to plaintiff’s lawyers, they need to fight such suits tooth and nail. [Read more...]
