Biopharma Investors Fail to Revive Suit on Bank Analyst’s Report

Biopharmaceutical investors who accused an investment bank of fraudulently inflating the company’s stock price lacked a plausible motive for the bank’s actions, the Ninth Circuit said when it affirmed dismissal of their case Thursday.

An H.C. Wainwright & Co. LLC analyst published a report setting a $7 target price for MannKind Corp.'s stock, and the bank announced later that day that it would act as the placing agent for an offering that priced the same stock at $6. MannKind investors haven’t “articulated with particularity or plausibility the bank’s motive” for the allegedly fraudulent price inflation, the U.S. Court of Appeals ...