SPT - Bragar Eagel & Squire P.C. Reminds Investors That Class Action Lawsuits Have Been Filed Against Altimmune Li Auto Sprout Social and Inari and Encourages Investors to Contact the Firm | Benzinga
NEW YORK, June 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, reminds investors that class actions have been commenced on behalf of stockholders of Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALT), Li Auto Inc. (NASDAQ:LI), Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT), and Inari Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NARI). Stockholders have until the deadlines below to petition the court to serve as lead plaintiff. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.
Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALT)
Class Period: December 1, 2023 - April 26, 2024
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 5, 2024
Altimmune is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on developing treatments for obesity and liver diseases. The Company's lead product candidate is pemvidutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 ("GLP-1") agonist for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis ("MASH"). GLP-1 agonists are medications that help lower blood sugar levels and promote weight loss.
On November 30, 2023, Altimmune announced topline results from its 48-week MOMENTUM Phase 2 trial evaluating pemvidutide for the treatment of obesity (the "MOMENTUM Trial"). According to the Company, at week 48, subjects receiving pemvidutide achieved mean weight losses of 10.3%, 11.2%, 15.6% and 2.2% at the 1.2 mg, 1.8 mg, and 2.4 mg doses and placebo, respectively, with a near-linear trajectory of continued weight loss observed on the 2.4 mg dose at the end of treatment. Defendants touted the significance of these results to pemvidutide's clinical and commercial prospects as they purportedly evidenced the drug's viability to compete with other GLP-1 agonists targeting weight-loss. Pemvidutide's ability to compete with other GLP-1 agonists targeting weight-loss was particularly important to analysts and investors given the Company's need to establish a strategic partnership with, or otherwise be acquired by, more established biopharmaceutical companies with the cash and capital needed to ensure funding for the drug's future.
The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Altimmune overstated the potential for pemvidutide to stand out from competing GLP-1 agonists based on the drug's efficacy and tolerability results observed in the MOMENTUM Trial; (ii) accordingly, the MOMENTUM Trial results were less significant to pemvidutide's clinical, commercial, and competitive prospects than Defendants had led investors to believe; (iii) as a result of all the foregoing, Defendants had overstated Altimmune's prospects for finding a strategic partner to develop pemvidutide; and (iv) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On February 13, 2024, Kerrisdale Capital published a report (the "Kerrisdale Report") alleging that "a deeper examination of Altimmune's data reveals a drug with little chance of competing against either the approved incumbents or the other GLP-1 agonists progressing through clinical trials." In particular, the Kerrisdale Report found that "[e]ven if pemvidutide did result in 15.6% weight-loss, that's not good enough" because competing, already approved GLP- 1 agonists "semaglutide and tirzepatide (Ozempic and Mounjaro) have demonstrated superior weight-loss on a comparable basis, with the added benefit of controlling blood-sugar (which pemvidutide does not)," while noting that "pemvidutide's tolerability is atrocious" compared to these same drugs. (Emphasis in original.) Accordingly, the Kerrisdale Report concluded that "[w]e don't think legitimate prospective partners want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and years of trials pursuing an obvious dead end."
On this news, Altimmune's stock price fell $1.94 per share, or 18.65%, to close at $8.46 per share on February 13, 2024.
Then, on April 29, 2024, Bloomberg published an article entitled "Altimmune Down as Guggenheim Sees Overhang in No Partnership," reporting that "Guggenheim Securities downgraded [Altimmune's] stock to neutral from buy saying [a] partnership for the biotech's lead asset ...