Calpers Accuses Celgene of Fraud in Touting New-Drug Prospects

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System alleged in a lawsuit that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Celgene fraudulently misled investors about the potential of two new drugs to offset a sales slowdown from the company’s blockbuster multiple myeloma drug, Revlimid, which is slated to lose patent protection next year.

Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, said in a complaint filed Friday in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that the drug maker and three executives began a campaign in September 2016 to convince investors that the drugs Otezla and Ozanimod “were poised to be billion-dollar blockbusters and provide massive revenues ...