Litigators Secure Complete Dismissal Of Securities Class Action Against Stemline Therapeutics

A Ropes & Gray litigation team secured a complete dismissal of a securities class action lawsuit on behalf of clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Stemline Therapeutics, Inc. and its officers and directors. Filed in the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit alleged that Stemline violated the securities laws by failing to disclose a patient death in a cancer drug trial that occurred just prior to a $50 million public offering of securities by Stemline. The company’s stock price fell by more than 40% after an article was published two weeks after the offering disclosing the patient death.

On March 15, 2018, Judge Paul Crotty dismissed the case in its entirety. The Court accepted Ropes & Gray’s arguments that Stemline’s offering prospectus was not false or misleading as a matter of law, and that the defendants did not have a duty to disclose the adverse event.

The Ropes & Gray team included litigation & enforcement partners Gregg Weiner and Amy Roy.