Robbins Geller Obtains $40 Million Recovery in Securities Fraud Case Against Pharmaceutical Company

The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey granted final approval of a $40 million settlement resolving a securities fraud case against Immunomedics, a biopharmaceutical company that developed products for cancer treatment before being acquired by Gilead Sciences. Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP and co-lead counsel represented the investor class who alleged Immunomedics committed securities fraud.

In 2018, Immunomedics discovered a serious data integrity breach at its New Jersey manufacturing facility involving personnel deliberately manipulating samples and misrepresenting test procedures. Although the company conducted an internal investigation into the breach and the FDA identified problems caused by the data integrity breach that imperiled Immunomedics’ primary drug candidate, company executives did not disclose any of the problems to investors. It was only at the end of 2018 that the data integrity breach was revealed to investors, and soon after in January 2019, Immunomedics publicly disclosed that the FDA had rejected approval of the company’s drug due to the unresolved issues at the New Jersey manufacturing facility related to the data integrity breach.

As a result of disclosures, Immunomedics’ stock price fell over 20%. Investors brought suit against Immunomedics and certain executives alleging that the defendants made false and misleading statements to artificially inflate the company’s stock price and launch a follow-on offering of common stock while concealing the data integrity breach.

“Corporate misconduct harms the company and its investors,” said Robbins Geller partner Tor Gronborg, one of the lead attorneys for investors. “We are grateful to represent clients who are committed to holding pharmaceutical companies and their executives accountable.”

Robbins Geller has represented investors prosecuting securities fraud cases against several other major companies in the pharmaceutical industry in cases such as Valeant ($1.21 billion settlement), Cardinal Health ($600 million settlement), and Puma Biotechnology, a case where Robbins Geller went to trial and obtained a plaintiffs’ verdict. Following a claims process in Puma, the defendants settled the case for 100% of damages plus pre-judgment interest. Robbins Geller partners Tor Gronborg and Trig Smith were members of the litigation team in Immunomedics and the trial team in Puma.

Robbins Geller attorneys Tor Gronborg, Debra J. Wyman, Trig Smith, Jennifer N. Caringal, and Joseph J. Tull, along with co-lead counsel, represented the lead plaintiffs in the securities fraud case.

About Robbins Geller

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is one of the world’s leading complex litigation firms, representing plaintiffs in securities fraud, shareholder derivative, antitrust, corporate takeover, and consumer fraud and privacy cases. With 200 lawyers in 9 offices, Robbins Geller is one of the world’s largest plaintiffs’ firms, and the Firm’s attorneys have obtained many of the largest securities, antitrust, and consumer class action recoveries in history.

The Firm is ranked #1 on the most recent ISS Securities Class Action Services Top 50 Report for recovering more than $1.75 billion for investors in 2022 – the third year in a row Robbins Geller tops the list. And in those three years alone, Robbins Geller recovered nearly $5.3 billion for investors, more than double the amount recovered by any other plaintiffs’ firm. The Firm secured the largest-ever securities fraud class action settlement — $7.2 billion — in In re Enron Corp. Securities Litigation.

For media inquiries, please contact media@rgrdlaw.com or call (619) 338-3821.

Odeh v. Immunomedics, Inc., No. 2:18-cv-17645-EP-ESK (D.N.J.).