NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Murray, Frank & Sailer LLP announces that a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. ("Taro" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:TARO) between February 20, 2003 and July 29, 2004, inclusive (the "Class Period").
The action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against defendants Taro, Barrie Levitt (Executive Chairman), Aaron Levitt (President), Daniel Moros (Vice Chairman), Samuel Rubenstein (General Manager) and Kevin Connelly (Chief Financial Officer). According to the complaint, defendants violated sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5, by knowingly or recklessly issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market during the Class Period.
The complaint alleges that Taro presented itself as a pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets generic drugs, and that the Company claimed throughout the Class Period that it had successfully expanded its product line to include proprietary drugs and novel drug delivery systems. Unbeknownst to investors, the Company suffered from undisclosed adverse factors that were having a negative impact on Taro's financial performance and condition including but not limited to the following: (a) defendants were unable to maintain profitability in Taro's generic drug division or generate free cash flow from the introduction of higher margin proprietary products sufficient to offset the expense of its new product launches; (b) defendants had failed to properly record the full expense of developing new proprietary drug products, such that it was materially false and misleading for defendants to state that the roll-out of Taro's new proprietary drugs was not and would not adversely affect the Company's near- or long-term profitability; (c) defendants understated the negative effects of increasing competition on the Company's financial performance; and (d) as a result of the foregoing, defendants lacked any reasonable basis to claim that Taro was operating according to plan or that Taro could maintain profitability in the near-term.
The truth emerged on July 29, 2004. On that date, the Company announced a second-quarter loss of $0.31 per share, far below the Company-guided analyst consensus estimate of $0.44 per share earnings, and that drug sales had dropped to $49.1 million from $74.8 million in the prior second quarter. On this news, Taro's share price fell more than $11.50 per share to a new multi-year low of $18.68 per share. Murray, Frank & Sailer LLP and its predecessor firms have devoted its practice to shareholder class actions and complex commercial litigation for more than thirty years and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for shareholders in class actions throughout the United States.
If you purchased or acquired the common stock of salesforce.com, inc. between February 20, 2003 and July 29, 2004, inclusive, and sustained damages, you may, no later than October 4, 2004, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff of the class. Shareholders outside the United States may also join the action, regardless of which exchange was used to purchase the securities. To serve as lead plaintiff, however, you must meet certain legal requirements. You can join this class action online at http://www.murrayfrank.com/CM/NewCases/NewCases.asp. If you would like to discuss this action, this announcement, or your rights and interests, please contact plaintiff's counsel Eric J. Belfi or Aaron D. Patton of Murray, Frank & Sailer LLP.