Litigation Team Wins Complete Dismissal of Securities Class Action Against Seres Therapeutics, Inc.

A Ropes & Gray litigation team secured complete dismissal of a securities class action lawsuit brought against biopharmaceutical company Seres Therapeutics, Inc. and two of the company’s officers. The lawsuit targeted allegedly false and misleading statements and omissions related to the company’s Phase 2 clinical trial.

In particular, the plaintiffs alleged that Seres’ positive statements concerning the ongoing Phase 2 trial were false and misleading because the company had knowledge of negative interim data from the trial. Additionally, the plaintiffs pointed to stock sales by Seres executives and the subsequent drop in the company’s stock price by more than 70% as evidence that Seres executives intended to mislead the market to inflate the stock price. 

On March 30, 2018, Judge Denise Casper of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed the case in its entirety, accepting many of Ropes & Gray’s arguments.

The Boston-based Ropes & Gray team included litigation & enforcement partners John Donovan and Dan Ward.