Investors who acquired AstraZeneca stock last year have filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging that the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer made false statements to the market but a consumer regulatory attorney asserts that the litigation is unlikely to succeed.
“I can't see this lawsuit being very successful because of the immense amount of pressure put on all pharmaceutical companies that were trying to develop a vaccine and to develop it in an expedient manner,” said Shawn Collins of Newport Beach.
Under former President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, AstraZeneca collaborated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make available at least 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine as early as October 2020, according to a statement online.
“These shareholders lawsuits are pretty common,” Collins told the Southern California Record. “Investors always get upset at a stock drop when a drug or product that's supposed to come to market doesn't perform as planned.”
Allegations in the complaint include AstraZeneca made misleading statements, that AZD1222 initial clinical trials experienced manufacturing errors, clinical trials were damaged due to a patchwork of patients, and some trial participants did not receive a second dose of the vaccine candidate within a specified amount of time, according to a Morningstar.com paid advertisement.
“Plaintiffs have to prove there was intentional misrepresentation by a company that was moving at a very, very, very fast pace,” Collins said. “AstraZeneca was moving significantly faster than they otherwise would have been moving due to the amount of pressure being put on them to come up with the vaccine.”
The vaccine shows a 76% efficacy against symptomatic disease, according to a press release issued by AstraZeneca last month.
“This lawsuit has gotten notoriety because of the problems that the AstraZeneca vaccine had, in terms of the side effects, which are a catalyst,” Collins said. “Plaintiff's attorneys are out there. They love stuff like this and they jump all over it as soon as there’s any movement in the stock price.”
At $48.42 a share, AstraZeneca stock is down -1.63%, according to Yahoo Finance.
California attorney Lesley F. Portnoy filed the class-action shareholder lawsuit but he declined to comment.