Linklaters Secures Complete Dismissal of Securities Class Action for Regeneron

Linklaters’ U.S. Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations team represented Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and four of its senior executives and secured the complete dismissal, with prejudice, of a putative securities class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit alleged that under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act, Regeneron misled investors regarding the commercial performance of its retinal disease therapies, Eylea and Eylea HD, including by failing to disclose that the company reimbursed wholesale distributors’ credit card processing fees, a practice also at issue in a False Claims Act lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, and by overstating early demand for Eylea HD. 

The court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss in full and directed the case to be closed. It held that Regeneron was not required to disclose every factor contributing to Eylea’s commercial success when discussing the therapy’s clinical effectiveness and that the complaint failed to plausibly allege any actionable misstatement or intent to defraud investors. The court also held that Regeneron's statements concerning Eylea's clinical performance and Eylea HD's market reception did not support a viable securities fraud claim and found that the alleged efforts to encourage purchases of Eylea HD reflected legitimate efforts to sell a new product. It also rejected plaintiff’s efforts to rely on allegations from a separate False Claims Act proceeding to establish securities liability and held that the plaintiff failed to establish investor losses tied to the alleged misstatements.

The Linklaters team was led by Chair of the Global Sports Practice and U.S. Strategic Disputes Christopher Boehning. The team also included Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations Partner César Rivière and Associate Cara Day.