Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, MDL 1720
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Case Name: McKesson
Settlement Fund: $141,000,000
Claim Filing Deadline: May 10, 2022
Class Period: 10/24/2013 - 10/27/2016
Pharmaceutical
giant McKesson--distributor of one-third of all pharmaceuticals in the US--has
settled a securities suit for $141 million. McKesson is the latest pharma
company to settle a litigation over its alleged role in the generic drug
price-fixing scandal that has marred the industry. (Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Endo
International, Novo Nordisk, and Allergan have each previously settled
securities class actions pertaining to this scandal.)
Plaintiffs allege that McKesson, "knew or recklessly disregarded that generic drug
price inflation was not the result of legitimate supply disruptions," and
that, "the Company’s generic manufacturing suppliers were part of an
overarching generic pharmaceutical price-fixing conspiracy." Starting in
2014, the skyrocketing price of generic drugs drew public outrage and
Congressional investigations-- and according to plaintiffs, eventually wore
down the price of McKesson's common stock.
Plaintiffs allege that during the class
period, which spans October 24, 2013 through October 27, 2016, investors
unknowingly benefited from the scheme, seeing their share price nearly double,
but suffered once the conspiracy collapsed. On the final date of the class
period, McKesson CFO James Beer announced during a call about second-quarter
results that the company's profits had been hurt by, “competitive customer pricing and softness in
brand inflation. We expect these two headwinds to drive a combined reduction of
between approximately $1.60 and $1.90 to our fiscal 2017 adjusted earnings per
share.” The next day,
McKesson’s stock price fell over 22%.
Beer's anodyne explanation for McKesson's
"headwinds" were belied a week later, on November 3, 2016, when
Bloomberg reported that the
Department of Justice had been investigating the generic drug industry for the
past two years. The demise of a broad conspiracy to fix prices was, according
to plaintiffs, the true cause of the "weaker
pharmaceutical pricing trends" that Beer had discussed on the October 27
call.
Claim forms are due on May 10, 2023. If you
have any question about this case, or about any other litigation, please let us
know.
Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, MDL 1720
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Cornerstone Research has released its yearly securities
class action litigation report and found dramatic increases in the number of
settlements and in the average settlement pools. (The link to the full report
is below.)
Cornerstone focused on federal securities class actions, specifically cases al... Read More
Case Name: Micro Focus
Settlement Fund: $107,500,000
Claim Filing Deadline: 5/30/2023
Class: All persons who purchased or acquired Micro Focus American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) issued in connection with the Merger of Micro Focus and the software business segment of HPE (the “Merger”), which was c... Read More
Case Name: Wells Fargo 2018 Litigation
Settlement Fund: $300,000,000
Claim Filing Deadline: TBD
Class Period: 11/3/2016 -- 8/3/2017
Chicago Clearing Corporation is tracking a new $300 settlement with Wells Fargo. As of today (2/23/23) proof of claim forms and notices are not yet available, but recovery could be substanti... Read More