SAN DIEGO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Shareholder rights law firm Robbins Arroyo LLP announces that a class action complaint was filed against Ophthotech Corporation (NASDAQGS: OPHT) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint is brought on behalf of all purchasers of Ophthotech securities between May 11, 2015 and December 12, 2016 for alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by Ophthotech's officers and directors. Ophthotech, a biopharmaceutical company, develops novel therapeutics to treat diseases of the back of the eye, including age-related macular degeneration ("AMD"). The company's most advanced product candidate was Fovista, an anti-platelet derived growth factor ("PDGF") aptamer, designed to block proteins that bind to cells on the outer lining of blood vessels.
View this information on the law firm's Shareholder Rights Blog: www.robbinsarroyo.com/shareholders-rights-blog/ophthotech-corporation
Ophthotech Accused of Misrepresenting the Efficacy of Its Drug
According to the complaint, after reporting purportedly positive results from the Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of Fovista, Ophthotech initiated two Phase 3 clinical trials designed to test Fovista in combination with the drug Lucentis, an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agent. In order to be deemed clinically successful, Fovista and Lucentis needed to perform marginally better than Lucentis alone. Ophthotech officials stated in several press releases that Fovista is "well position[ed] to potentially be first to market in this class of novel therapy for wet AMD" and that it has made "significant progress related to [its] clinical development." However, the complaint alleges that Ophthotech officials misrepresented the efficacy of Fovista and its attendant capacity for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") because: (1) Lucentis patients' gain of vision in the Phase 2b clinical trial was not representative of the drug's actual performance; (2) Fovista patients' gain of vision in the Phase 2b clinical trial was therefore biased; and (3) Ophthotech thus inappropriately relied on its Phase 2b results as a mean of touting its Phase 3 clinical trial of Fovista.
On December 12, 2016, Ophthotech issued a press release announcing the results of the two Phase 3 trials of Fovista, disclosing that it had failed to achieve its primary endpoint of visual acuity at 12 months compared to Lucentis administered as a monotherapy under the guidelines established by the FDA. The combined analysis from the trials showed that patients who received Fovista and Lucentis only demonstrated a mean gain of 10.24 letters on a standardized eye chart at 12 months, a non-statistically significant improvement over the 10.01-letter gain observed in the group that received only Lucentis. On this news, Ophthotech's stock fell approximately 86% to close at $5.29 per share on December 12, 2016.
Ophthotech Shareholders Have Legal Options
Concerned shareholders who would like more information about their rights and potential remedies can contact attorney Darnell R. Donahue at (800) 350-6003, [email protected], or via the shareholder information form on the firm's website.
Robbins Arroyo LLP is a nationally recognized leader in shareholder rights law. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits, and has helped its clients realize more than $1 billion of value for themselves and the companies in which they have invested.
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