NEW YORK, May 29, 2022 (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 AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE: ABBV), Playstudios, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYPS), International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM), and Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR). 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.
AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE: ABBV)
Class Period: April 30, 2021 – August 31, 2021
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 6, 2022
AbbVie is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. The company’s revenues will come under significant pressure in the coming years when its best-selling drug, Humira, will lose patent protection in 2023. Accordingly, AbbVie’s future revenue and earnings depend in large part on its ability to develop new sources of revenue to offset Humira’s lost sales. Rinvoq—an anti-inflammatory drug manufactured by AbbVie and used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other diseases by inhibiting Janus kinase (JAK) enzymes—was touted as one such drug. Rinvoq was initially approved in the United States to treat only moderate to severe RA. However, AbbVie was actively pursuing additional treatment indications and, in 2020, asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve Rinvoq for the treatment of several other diseases.
As is relevant here, Rinvoq is similar to other JAK inhibitor drugs, including Xeljanz, manufactured by Pfizer Inc. When the FDA approved Xeljanz in 2012 for the treatment of RA, it required an additional safety trial to evaluate Xeljanz’s risk of triggering certain serious side effects. Beginning in February 2019, the FDA repeatedly warned the public that the safety trial indicated that Xeljanz’s use could lead to serious heart-related issue, cancer, and other adverse events. Notwithstanding the similarities between Rinvoq and Xeljanz, during the Class Period, Defendants assured investors that Rinvoq was far safer than Xeljanz and not subject to the same regulatory risks.
However, investors began to learn the truth about Rinvoq’s significant risks on June 25, 2021, when AbbVie revealed that the FDA was delaying its review of expanded treatment applications for Rinvoq due to the safety concerns associated with Xeljanz. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $1.76 per share, or approximately 1.5%, from a close of $114.74 per share on June 24, 2021, to close at $112.98 per share on June 25, 2021.
Then, on September 1, 2021, the FDA announced that final results from the Xeljanz safety trial established an increased risk of serious adverse events, even with low doses of Xeljanz. As a result, the FDA determined that it would require new and updated warnings for Xeljanz and Rinvoq because Rinvoq “share[s] similar mechanisms of action with Xeljanz” and “may have similar risks as seen in the Xeljanz safety trial.” The FDA also indicated that it would further limit approved indications for Rinvoq as a result of these safety concerns. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $8.51 per share, or more than 7%, from a close of $120.78 per share on August 31, 2021, to close at $112.27 per share on September 1, 2021.
After the Class Period, on December 3, 2021, AbbVie announced that the FDA had updated Rinvoq’s label to require additional safety warnings and limit marketing of Rinvoq to only its use after treatment with other drugs has failed. On January 11, 2022, Defendants admitted that these changes to Rinvoq’s label would negatively impact sales, forcing the Company to reduce its long-term guidance for Rinvoq’s sales in 2025.
The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, the Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, about the company’s business and operations. Specifically, Defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose that: (1) safety concerns about Xeljanz extended to Rinvoq and other JAK inhibitors; (2) as a result, it was likely that the FDA would require additional safety warnings for Rinvoq and would delay the approval of additional treatment indications for Rinvoq; and (3) therefore, Defendants’ statements about the company’s business, operations, and prospects lacked a reasonable basis, As a result of the Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the significant decline in the market value of AbbVie’s securities, AbbVie investors have suffered significant damages.
For more information on the AbbVie class action go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/ABBV
Playstudios, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYPS)
Class Period: June 22, 2021 – March 1, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 6, 2022
Playstudios repeatedly communicated to the market that its game
Kingdom Boss
was “on track” for a 2021 release throughout that year. The Company represented that it would enjoy significant revenue and profits from this launch, including representations near the SPAC merger between the Company and Acies Acquisition Corp. The Company then announced on February 26, 2022, that
Kingdom Boss
had been indefinitely “suspended.”
The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Playstudios was having significant problems with its flagship game, Kingdom Boss; (ii) Playstudios would not be releasing Kingdom Boss as expected; and (iii) Playstudios had not revised its financial projections to account for the problems it had encountered with Kingdom Boss. As a result of defendants’ wrongful conduct, Class members paid artificially inflated prices for their Playstudios securities and suffered substantial losses and damages.
For more information on the Playstudios class action go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/MYPS
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM)
Class Period: April 4, 2017 – October 20, 2021
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 6, 2022
On October 20, 2021, after the close of the market, IBM disclosed that it was going to suffer a revenue shortfall, with its Cognitive & Cloud Computing segment the main culprit. Unbeknownst to the investing public, the Company had stopped and/or curtailed its improper conduct described below, which caused Company results to suffer.
On this news, IBM’s common stock fell from its close on October 20, 2021, of $133.87 per share to close at $121.07 per share on October 21, 2022, a loss of almost $13.00 per share, thereby injuring investors.
The complaint filed in this class action alleges that prior to and throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants overstated IBM’s revenues from its strategic side of the business, by misclassifying and/or shifting revenues from its non-strategic mainframe part of the business, to appease market expectations about the Company’s future prospects and boost incentive compensation for its executives. This misconduct began prior to the start of the Class Period and continued throughout. The defendants in the case are IBM, Virginia M. Rometty, Martin J. Schroeter, James J. Kavanaugh and Arvind Krishna. The Complaint alleges that the conduct of Defendants violates Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act of 1934.
For more information on the IBM class action go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/IBM
Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR)
Class Period: March 24, 2022 – April 1, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 13, 2022
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and Space-X, and according to Forbes, the richest person in the world, started to acquire shares of Twitter beginning in January 2022. By March 14, 2022, Musk had acquired more than a 5% ownership stake in Twitter, requiring him to file a Schedule 13 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) within 10 days, or March 24, 2022.
Musk did not file a Schedule 13 with the SEC within the required time and instead continued to amass Twitter shares, eventually acquiring a 9.1% stake in the Company before finally filing a Schedule 13 on April 4, 2022. By the time Musk filed the required Schedule 13, revealing his ownership stake in Twitter, the Company’s share rose from a closing price of $39.31 per share on April 1, 2022, to close at $49.97 per share on April 4, 2022 – an increase of approximately 27%.
Investors who sold shares of Twitter Stock between March 24, 2022, and before the actual April 4, 2022 disclosure, missed the resulting share price increase as the market reacted to Musk’s purchases. By failing to timely disclose his ownership stake, Musk was able to acquire shares of Twitter less expensively during the Class Period.
For more information on the Twitter class action go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/TWTR
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
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Contact Information:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.
Brandon Walker, Esq.
Melissa Fortunato, Esq.
(212) 355-4648
[email protected]
www.bespc.com
