Mark B. Rosen

First Circuit Affirms Tough Standard for Alleging Securities Fraud; Revives One Claim Against Local Drug Maker

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On November 28, 2016, the First Circuit upheld the dismissal of all but one of the class action securities fraud claims against Cambridge, MA drug company, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., reaffirming the exacting pleading standards that enable defendants to put an early end to reflexive stock-drop lawsuits.  In doing so, the First Circuit also adopted strict requirements for asserting claims that defendants misled investors in a common stock offering.

In In re ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Securities Litigation, shareholder plaintiffs appealed the District of Massachusetts’ dismissal of the federal securities fraud claims against ARIAD based on optimistic statements the company’s executives made about the prospects of ARIAD’s experimental leukemia drug, ponatinib, which ultimately did not fare so well in FDA trials.  The First Circuit largely affirmed the district court’s dismissal, holding that the complaint failed to raise a compelling inference that the company’s executives acted with scienter—or intent to defraud.  The appellate court did, however, revive a claim related to “one particular alleged

OMNICARE: Supreme Court Clarifies Whether Statements of Opinion by Companies and their Executives are Actionable under the Federal Securities Laws

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This week the Supreme Court resolved a split among federal appellate courts over whether a statement of opinion in a company’s registration statement can be actionable under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 if the speaker actually holds the stated opinion.  The high court ruled that such opinions are not actionable as an “untrue statement of material fact” simply because they turn out to be wrong.  But, taking another “midway position” on a divisive issue of securities class action litigation, the court left the door open…

Massachusetts Retirement Systems v. CVS Caremark: Reviving a Shareholder Suit, First Circuit Weighs In On Corrective Disclosures and Loss Causation in Securities Fraud Class Actions

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In Mass. Ret. Sys. v. CVS Caremark Corp., the First Circuit recently revived a shareholder securities fraud class action stemming from the 2006 merger of retail pharmacy chain, CVS, and pres…