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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Court Tosses Shareholder Suit Against Biogen Execs

BOSTON (CN) - Shareholders did not prove that the executives of a Biogen Idec Inc. knew about the failure of the company's multiple-sclerosis medication when they sold their stock, the 1st Circuit ruled.

Biogen sold a drug called Tysabri, which the Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked for patients with multiple sclerosis.

However, two patients contracted an infection and one of them died. Ten days later, the FDA pulled the drug off the shelves.

During that 10-day period, Biogen executives sold some of their stock in the company and made millions of dollars. The shareholders sued, but neither the district court nor Judge Lynch found evidence that the executives misled them or the FDA.

"There is no plausible inference," Lynch wrote, "that the defendants knew of any causal relationship between the use of Tysabri and the ... infections."

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