A pharmaceutical maker that had stated in SEC filings it was no longer going to focus on selling the company but rather marketing its sole drug itself did not have a duty to tell shareholders when it hired Lazard Freres & Co. and began shopping around for prospective buyers, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet of the District of Delaware threw out a putative class action against the former officers and directors of Savient Pharmaceuticals after finding the defendants did not have a duty to inform investors of what he said was not an “extreme change” in business plans, but rather a “subtle” shift.
