News & Events

On May 5, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in the Southern District of New York dismissed, with prejudice, the Prosensa IPO Litigation, including all claims asserted against the underwriter defendants represented by Simpson Thacher.  Prosensa, which went public in June 2013, is the developer of an experimental drug to treat patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare but invariably fatal genetic disease.  Plaintiffs alleged that Prosensa’s registration statement contained false and misleading statements and material omissions concerning clinical studies of the drug by failing to disclose, among other things, that the selection criteria of patients for advanced clinical trials would cause those trials to fail.

Judge Buchwald held that plaintiffs failed to sufficiently allege a misstatement or omission.  She found that plaintiffs were essentially seeking an “extra level of disclosure spelling out inferences and drawing conclusions for investors” which is not actionable under the Securities Act of 1933.

The Simpson Thacher team consists of Peter E. Kazanoff, Joshua Slocum and Camille Fletcher.