Berkeley Lights Gets Defective Lab Device Fraud Lawsuit Tossed

Berkeley Lights Inc. and its top executives defeated for now allegations that they overstated the biotechnology company’s post-IPO growth potential and hid defects in its flagship Beacon laboratory device from investors, when a judge granted their bid to dismiss the proposed class action.

The US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled Tuesday that the securities fraud complaint failed to adequately allege that the defendants’ statements about the functionality of the Beacon—a device for analyzing and processing cell data—were misleading. Moreover, the alleged misstatements about the company’s finances and growth prospects were non-actionable opinions, according to Judge Haywood ...