On April 22, 2020, Berman Tabacco was appointed Lead Counsel representing the sole Lead Plaintiff Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association in this class action, brought on behalf of investors in Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Portola”), a biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes treatments for thrombosis and other hematologic diseases. Portola’s primary product is Andexxa, a reversal drug for apixaban- and rivaroxaban-treated patients with life-threatening or uncontrolled bleeding. The action currently alleges that, between January 8, 2019 and February 26, 2020, defendants issued materially false and misleading statements related to the sales of Andexxa.
Lead Plaintiff filed its consolidated amended complaint on May 20, 2020, alleging violations of Sections 10(a) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Sections 11, 12(a)(2), and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933. Specifically, the complaint alleges that defendants’ positive statements about the company’s business, operations, and prospects were material misrepresentations of fact and/or lacked a reasonable basis. The company is alleged to have misrepresented (1) customer demand (from hospital and hospital-system pharmacies); (2) customer utilization of Andexxa for those that purchased it, both as to depth (regularity of usage) and breadth (types of bleeds prescribed for); and (3) Portola’s financial reporting regarding reserve for product returns (including that Portola had not established adequate reserve for returns of prior shipments of short-dated or previous-generation product).
The case is Hayden v. Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc., et al., No. 3:20-cv-00367-VC (N.D. Cal.). The litigation team includes Nicole Lavallee, Daniel Barenbaum, and Jeffrey Rocha from Berman Tabacco’s San Francisco office, and Jay Eng and Lindsey Silver from the firm’s Boston office.