NEW YORK, May 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, reminds investors that class actions have been commenced on behalf of stockholders of Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX), Harbor Diversified, Inc. (OTC: HRBR), Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALT), and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH). Stockholders have until the deadlines below to petition the court to serve as lead plaintiff. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.
Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX)
Class Period: May 3, 2019 - March 24, 2024
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 1, 2024
According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Equinix manipulated its financials to reduce operational expenses and boost Adjusted Funds From Operations (“AFFO”); (2) Equinix oversold power capacity and did not warn of the risks associated with this practice; (3) Equinix lacked adequate internal controls; and (4) as a result, Defendants’ public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times.
For more information on the Equinix class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/EQIX
Harbor Diversified, Inc. (OTC: HRBR)
Class Period: May 10, 2022 - March 29, 2024
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 8, 2024
According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Harbor Diversified’s financial statements from May 9, 2022 to the present were misstated due to improper revenue recognition; (2) Harbor Diversified lacked adequate internal controls; and (3) as a result, defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all times.
For more information on the Harbor Diversified class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/HRBR
Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALT)
Class Period: December 1, 2023 - April 26, 2024
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 5, 2024
Altimmune is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on developing treatments for obesity and liver diseases. The Company's lead product candidate is pemvidutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 ("GLP-1") agonist for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis ("MASH"). GLP-1 agonists are medications that help lower blood sugar levels and promote weight loss.
On November 30, 2023, Altimmune announced topline results from its 48-week MOMENTUM Phase 2 trial evaluating pemvidutide for the treatment of obesity (the "MOMENTUM Trial"). According to the Company, at week 48, subjects receiving pemvidutide achieved mean weight losses of 10.3%, 11.2%, 15.6% and 2.2% at the 1.2 mg, 1.8 mg, and 2.4 mg doses and placebo, respectively, with a near-linear trajectory of continued weight loss observed on the 2.4 mg dose at the end of treatment. Defendants touted the significance of these results to pemvidutide's clinical and commercial prospects as they purportedly evidenced the drug's viability to compete with other GLP-1 agonists targeting weight-loss. Pemvidutide's ability to compete with other GLP-1 agonists targeting weight-loss was particularly important to analysts and investors given the Company's need to establish a strategic partnership with, or otherwise be acquired by, more established biopharmaceutical companies with the cash and capital needed to ensure funding for the drug's future.
The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Altimmune overstated the potential for pemvidutide to stand out from competing GLP-1 agonists based on the drug's efficacy and tolerability results observed in the MOMENTUM Trial; (ii) accordingly, the MOMENTUM Trial results were less significant to pemvidutide's clinical, commercial, and competitive prospects than Defendants had led investors to believe; (iii) as a result of all the foregoing, Defendants had overstated Altimmune's prospects for finding a strategic partner to develop pemvidutide; and (iv) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On February 13, 2024, Kerrisdale Capital published a report (the "Kerrisdale Report") alleging that "a deeper examination of Altimmune's data reveals a drug with little chance of competing against either the approved incumbents or the other GLP-1 agonists progressing through clinical trials." In particular, the Kerrisdale Report found that "[e]ven if pemvidutide did result in 15.6% weight-loss, that's not good enough" because competing, already approved GLP- 1 agonists "semaglutide and tirzepatide (Ozempic and Mounjaro) have demonstrated superior weight-loss on a comparable basis, with the added benefit of controlling blood-sugar (which pemvidutide does not)," while noting that "pemvidutide's tolerability is atrocious" compared to these same drugs. (Emphasis in original.) Accordingly, the Kerrisdale Report concluded that "[w]e don't think legitimate prospective partners want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and years of trials pursuing an obvious dead end."
On this news, Altimmune's stock price fell $1.94 per share, or 18.65%, to close at $8.46 per share on February 13, 2024.
Then, on April 29, 2024, Bloomberg published an article entitled "Altimmune Down as Guggenheim Sees Overhang in No Partnership," reporting that "Guggenheim Securities downgraded [Altimmune's] stock to neutral from buy saying [a] partnership for the biotech's lead asset pemvidutide look[s] 'increasingly unlikely.'" In particular, Guggenheim Securities stated that the opportunity to successfully fund pemvidutide's future as a treatment for obesity through a strategic partnership was "growing increasingly tenuous" and that "[t]he failure of a partner to emerge now five months from the end of Ph[ase] 2 presents an overhang that can no longer be ignored" as "a major partnership or M&A event would have materialized already if pem[vidutide] was viewed as a serious competitor in the growing obesity/ NASH landscapes by potential strategics or investors[.]"
On this news, Altimmune's stock price fell $0.87 per share, or 11.98%, to close at $6.39 per share on April 29, 2024.
For more information on the Altimmune class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/ALT
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH)
Class Period: March 14, 2022, - February 27, 2024 (Common Stock Only)
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 16, 2024
UnitedHealth is an American multinational health insurance and services company comprised of two distinct and complementary businesses: Optum and UnitedHealthcare. UnitedHealthcare provides health insurance to individuals, employers, and small businesses and is the largest insurance provider in the United States. Optum provides healthcare-related services, including software solutions, payment services, and data analytics.
On January 6, 2021, UnitedHealth announced an agreement to acquire Change Healthcare (“Change”) and integrate it into its Optum business. Change is a healthcare technology company that provides data solutions aimed at improving clinical decision making and simplifying payment processes across the healthcare system. On February 24, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a lawsuit challenging UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Change. The DOJ alleged that the proposed acquisition would violate antitrust laws because the integration of Change and Optum would give UnitedHealth unparalleled access to information regarding nearly every health insurer, as well as health data on every single American. Ultimately, the court in the DOJ action permitted the acquisition, repeatedly crediting UnitedHealth’s firewall policy and commitment to preventing the sharing of data between UnitedHealthcare and Optum as the rationale for allowing the deal to proceed.
The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, UnitedHealth repeatedly assured investors that it had taken steps to avoid anti-competitive behavior, including by setting up “robust firewall processes” to prevent customer sensitive information (“CSI”) from being shared between UnitedHealthcare and Optum after the merger. Specifically, UnitedHealth explicitly stated that Optum “invests extraordinary time, money, and resources into safeguarding [CSI] and keeping it walled off from UnitedHealthcare” and that “UnitedHealth Group’s existing firewalls and data-security policies prohibit employees from improperly sharing external-customer CSI.” As a result of these misrepresentations, UnitedHealth stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period.
The complaint further alleges that the truth emerged on February 27, 2024, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the DOJ had re-opened its antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth. In that article, the public learned for the first time that the DOJ was investigating the relationships between the Company’s various segments, including Optum. As a result of this disclosure, the price of UnitedHealth stock declined by $27 per share, erasing nearly $25 billion in shareholder value.
For more information on the UnitedHealth class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/UNH
About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Contact Information:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.
Brandon Walker, Esq.
Marion Passmore, Esq.
(212) 355-4648
investigations@bespc.com
www.bespc.com
