Athira Pharma Asks Judge to Toss Investor Suit on CEO’s Research

An investor suit attempting to turn the former Athira Pharma Inc. CEO’s graduate school “mistakes” into a securities fraud case years later should be thrown out, the company told a federal judge in Washington state.

The would-be class complaint didn’t “even attempt to allege an actual false statement” in the biopharmaceutical company’s offering materials or other Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Athira said in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The investors instead “rely entirely on an omissions theory.”

Investors say Athira didn’t tell them that several papers ex-CEO Leen Kawas—who resigned several months after investors ...