BALA CYNWYD, Pa., March 8, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- The following statement was issued today by the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP:
Notice is hereby given that a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of all purchasers of the common stock of Biopure Corporation ("Biopure" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:BPUR) from May 8, 2001 through December 6, 2001, inclusive (the "Class Period").
If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP (Marc A. Topaz, Esq. or Stuart L. Berman, Esq.) toll free at 1-888-299-7706 or 1-610-667-7706, or via e-mail at info@sbclasslaw.com.
The complaint charges Biopure Corporation and certain of its officers and directors with issuing false and misleading statements concerning its business and financial condition. The Complaint alleges that Biopure, 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.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of class members and is represented by the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP, which has significant experience and expertise prosecuting class actions on behalf of investors and shareholders. For more information on Schiffrin & Barroway, or to sign-up to participate in this action online, please visit www.sbclasslaw.com.
If you are a member of the class described above, you may, not later than April 8, 2002, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff of the class, if you so choose. In order to serve as lead plaintiff, however, you must meet certain legal requirements.
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primezone.com/ca