Endo International Hit With Securities Fraud Class Action
WASHINGTON, DC (November 16, 2017) — U.S. Market Advisors Law Group PLLC announces that a securities class action has been filed Endo International plc (NASDAQ:ENDP). The class action is on behalf of investors who acquired Endo securities between September 28, 2015 and February 28, 2017.
Investors with losses have until January 16, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. The Lead Plaintiff is a representative for absent members of the class. Investors do not need to seek appointment as Lead Plaintiff to share in any class recovery in this action. If you are a class member and there is a recovery for the class, you can share in that recovery as an absent class member. You may retain counsel of your choice to represent you in this action. Contact USMA Law Group to discuss this action.
Endo provides specialty healthcare solutions. The Company develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes pharmaceutical products and generic drugs. Endo International offers its products to the medical and healthcare industries around the globe.
On September 28, 2015, Endo announced that it had completed its $8.05 billion acquisition of Par Pharmaceutical Holdings, Inc. from the private investment firm TPG. Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of generic drugs and operates as a subsidiary of Par Pharmaceutical.
Allegations Against Endo
The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Par Pharmaceutical had colluded with several of its industry peers to fix generic drug prices; (ii) the foregoing conduct constituted a violation of federal antitrust laws; (iii) the competitive advantages of the Par Pharmaceutical Acquisition, which Endo touted to its shareholders as, inter alia, “a compelling opportunity to drive future double-digit growth, serve our customers and build shareholder value,” were in fact derived in part from Par Pharmaceutical’s illegal conduct and thus unsustainable; (iv) for the same reasons, the “impressive track record of delivering strong operating results” that Endo attributed to former Par Pharmaceutical executive Paul Campanelli in announcing his promotion to Endo’s CEO consisted in part of illegal conduct; (v) for the foregoing reasons, Endo’s revenues during the Class Period were in part the result of illegal conduct and likewise unsustainable; and (vi) as a result of the foregoing, Endo’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On November 3, 2016, media outlets reported that U.S. prosecutors were considering filing criminal charges by the end of 2016 against Par Pharmaceutical and several other pharmaceutical companies for unlawfully colluding to fix generic drug prices. In an article titled “U.S. Charges in Generic-Drug Probe to Be Filed by Year-End.”
On this news, Endo’s share price fell $3.54, or 19.48%, to close at $14.63 on November 3, 2016.
On March 1, 2017, Endo filed an Annual Report on Form 10-K with the SEC, reporting in full the Company’s financial and operating results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2016. Reflecting the extent to which Par Pharmaceutical’s unlawful conduct had previously inflated Endo’s revenues, the Company reported a net loss of $3.35 billion, or $15.03 per diluted share, on revenue of $4.01 billion, citing, in part, a 27% increase in cost of revenues and a decrease in gross margins from 36% in 2015 to 34% in 2016.
On this news, Endo’s share price fell $0.83, or 6.08%, to close at $12.82 on March 1, 2017.
On October 31, 2017, attorneys general from 46 states and the District of Columbia amended their antitrust case on generic drug price-fixing conspiracy against the $75 billion generic drug industry to add 18 new companies, including Endo’s wholly-owned subsidiary Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. The states allege these companies violated antitrust laws to artificially inflate the prices of the drugs by agreeing to “collectively raise and/or maintain prices for a particular generic drug,” and agreeing to divvy up the market for the drugs to reduce competition by “refusing to bid for particular customers or by providing a cover bid that they knew would not be successful.” This in effect “avoided price erosion” and “increased pricing for targeted products without triggering a ‘fight to the bottom’ among existing competitors.”
According to the amended complaint, these companies conspired to unreasonably restrain trade, artificially inflate and reduce competition in the generic pharmaceutical industry for the markets of fifteen generic drugs: Acetazolamide, Doxycycline Hyclate Delayed Release, Doxycycline Monohydrate, Fosinopril-Hydrochlorothiazide, Glipizide-Metformin, Glyburide, Glyburide-Metformin, Leflunomide, Meprobamate, Nimodipine, Nystatin, Paromomycin, Theophylline, Verapamil and Zoledronic Acid. As a result of the conspiracy, “[p]rices for dozens of generic drugs have risen – while some have skyrocketed, without explanation, sparking outrage from politicians, payers, and consumers across the country whose costs have doubled, tripled, or even increased 1,000% or more.”
About USMA Law Group
U.S. Market Advisors Law Group PLLC is a national law firm based in Washington, D.C. The firm represents investors worldwide in U.S. securities class action lawsuits.
Contact
David P. Abel
(202) 274-0237
[email protected]