A Jan. 27 settlement the U.S. SEC reached with a former vice president at a biotech company serves as a reminder that insider trading rules applies to suppliers as well as the companies involved in an M&A.
Upholding a 2021 jury verdict against a hedge fund adviser accused of making fraudulent statements to drive down Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s stock price, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit shot down Gregory Lemelson’s arguments that his statements related to the company and its lead drug, Promacta (eltrombopag), were opinions protected by the First Amendment and that they were not material.
Viatris Inc.’s chief information officer, Ramkumar Rayapureddy, is facing an SEC insider trading complaint, along with criminal charges brought by the fraud division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Another man, Brian Wong, was charged with illegal trading ahead of Merck & Co. Inc.’s acquisition of Pandion Therapeutics Inc.
Inspectors from the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) have reportedly arrived in Hong Kong to inspect audit records for the Chinese companies listed by the U.S. SEC as being noncompliant with U.S. accounting standards.
Inspectors from the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) have reportedly arrived in Hong Kong to inspect audit records for the Chinese companies listed by the U.S. SEC as being noncompliant with U.S. accounting standards.
For the first time since they’ve had access to U.S. capital, biopharma and med-tech companies based in China and Hong Kong are having to comply with the same accountability standards companies in the U.S. and other countries must follow as a condition of trading on U.S. markets.
A dozen years after the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into U.S. law, the SEC adopted a final rule Aug. 25 implementing the law’s so-called “pay-vs.-performance” provisions related to executive compensation.
When medical device manufacturers think of U.S. federal government enforcement, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 might not be the first element of the statute to come to mind. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) used SOX to snare Suralign Holdings Inc. for pushing orders to customers ahead of schedule to draw the related revenue forward, an allegation that led to restitutions and penalties amounting to nearly $3 million.
Insider trading appears to be the U.S. SEC violation du jour. The agency filed insider trading charges against 10 individuals July 25, including a former FBI trainee and his friend who made about $82,000 and $1.3 million, respectively, from illegally trading ahead of the February 2021 announcement of Merck & Co. Inc.’s $1.85 billion tender offer to acquire Pandion Therapeutics Inc.
Several U.S. government agencies have been involved in the enforcement action directed toward Medifirst Solutions Inc., of Freehold, N.J., including the Department of Justice, but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has had its say as well. The SEC recently announced that a final consent judgment has been entered against a former Medifirst stock promoter, although there is still no word as to the fate of the company’s former CEO.
RSS
