BALA CYNWYD, Pa., April 5, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Shareholders of Biopure Corporation ("Biopure" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:BPUR) who desire to serve as a lead plaintiff in a shareholder class action lawsuit now pending in federal court in Massachusetts (02-10437EFH) must submit an application with the Court by April 8, 2002 according to the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP.
The lawsuit seeks damages for violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all investors who purchased Biopure Corporation securities between May 8, 2001 and December 6, 2001(the "Class Period").
Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP has prosecuted shareholder class actions for over fourteen years and has recovered more than $1 billion for investors. If you are a shareholder of Biopure Corporation and want to learn more about this lawsuit and about becoming a lead plaintiff, you may visit our website at http://www.sbclasslaw.com/cgi/signup.cgi.
The complaint alleges that the Massachusetts-based Biopure Corporation, a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of a new class of pharmaceuticals it calls, "oxygen therapeutics," and the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by issuing materially false and misleading statements concerning the likely timing of the Company's filing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") of its Biologic License Application ("BLA") to market Hemopure, Biopure's experimental blood substitute for patients undergoing elective surgery. In particular, defendants led investors to believe that the BLA was on track to be filed by year-end 2001.
As alleged in the Complaint, these statements were materially false and misleading because, by commencement of the Class Period, defendants knew or recklessly ignored the fact that the data collected from the Hemopure trial (which had been completed in August 2000) was significantly deficient and failed to demonstrate that the trial had been conducted in an "adequate and well-controlled" manner. As such, plaintiff asserts that the data lacked reliability, thereby making any application unlikely to be accepted for filing, much less approved, by the FDA. It is further alleged that defendants also knew that the FDA would not allow a BLA to be filed where the data lacked "prima facie" reliability.
On December 6, 2001, the Company announced that it would not file the Hemopure application until mid-2002, contrary to repeated prior assertions that the BLA would be filed in 2001. Biopure blamed the delay on "additional facility and process validation requirements" for its Cambridge, Massachusetts manufacturing plant. Plaintiff asserts that this was merely a pretext for the delay, which in fact was occasioned by the data deficiencies that had arisen during the clinical trial. As a result of the postponement, the price of Biopure stock fell to less than $15 per share, well below the $20 plateau above which the stock traded throughout most of the Class Period.
If you purchased Biopure Corporation securities between May 8, 2001 and December 6, 2001, you may be a member of the class and have until April 8, 2002 to move the court to become a lead plaintiff. In order to serve as lead plaintiff, however, you must meet certain legal requirements. To be a member of the class, however, you do not need to take any action at this time. Should you decide to seek appointment as a lead plaintiff, you may retain Schiffrin & Barroway, or retain counsel of your choice.
To learn more about your rights and interests in this case and your ability to potentially recoup your losses, please contact Schiffrin & Barroway (Marc A. Topaz, Esq. or Stuart L. Berman, Esq.) directly at 888-299-7706 (toll free) or 610-822-2221, fax number 610-822-0002, e-mail at info@sbclasslaw.com or visit our website at www.sbclasslaw.com.