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Law360 (April 30, 2021, 8:47 PM EDT ) Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP and Pomerantz LLP have been tapped to represent AstraZeneca investors in a Manhattan federal court suit alleging the company withheld information about problems in the clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken appointed the two firms lead counsel in the proposed class action on Wednesday and at the same time consolidated other suits making similar allegations against AstraZeneca PLLC. The order also named the Detroit firm VanOverbeke Michaud & Timmony PC as additional counsel representing co-lead plaintiff the Wayne County Employees' Retirement System and the Portnoy Law Firm as additional counsel representing the other co-lead plaintiff, individual investor Nuggehalli Balmukund Nandkumar.
Nandkumar and the Wayne County fund were among four investors asking to be appointed lead plaintiff in the matter in March. The two other movants, Carol Gray and Vinod Alluri, have since filed notices telling Judge Oetken that they don't oppose the bids filed by investors with a greater financial stake in the litigation. Gray is represented by Levi & Korsinsky LLP, and Alluri is represented by Roche Freedman LLP.
The Wayne County institutional investor and Nandkumar initially filed separate lead plaintiff bids. But on April 12, they asked Judge Oetken if they could serve jointly as lead plaintiff, telling him that they had "concluded that a protracted dispute concerning lead plaintiff appointment in this action is not in the best interests of the class."
The Wayne County fund says it lost $89,754 in connection with the alleged fraud, and Nandkumar $114,175.
In the first-filed suit, a proposed class action launched in January, AstraZeneca investor Vladimir Zhukov alleged that the drug company and its brass were liable for securities fraud because they had concealed issues with the clinical trial that made it unlikely that the company's vaccine would be approved for use in the U.S. Zhukov's suit was among those consolidated into In re AstraZeneca PLC Securities Litigation.
AstraZeneca has since faced additional scrutiny as regulators in Europe have said that as many as 209 individuals have developed rare blood clots after receiving the company's COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is still not authorized for use in the U.S.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
The investors are represented by Samuel H. Rudman, David A. Rosenfeld, Danielle S. Myers and Jennifer N. Caringal of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, Jeremy A. Lieberman, J. Alexander Hood II, James M. Lopiano and Patrick V. Dahlstrom of Pomerantz LLP and Lesley F. Portnoy of the Portnoy Law Firm.
AstraZeneca is represented by Mary Jane Eaton and Meredith Eve Kotler of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
The case is In re AstraZeneca PLC Securities Litigation, case number 1:21-cv-00722, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Additional reporting by Alex Lawson, Matthew Santoni, Dean Seal and Mike LaSusa. Editing by Jill Coffey.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
