This Action is a securities class action lawsuit alleging violations of Sections 10(b), 14(e) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and certain claims under Israeli law against Defendants. This lawsuit asserts that Defendants made material misrepresentations and omissions during the Class Period (from April 21, 2015 through May 2, 2017, inclusive), including in connection with a tender offer made to Perrigo shareholders by Mylan N.V. in the fall of 2015 (through which Mylan sought to acquire Perrigo), regarding (a) the performance and integration of Omega Pharma, N.V., which Perrigo acquired in early 2015; (b) Perrigo’s pricing strategy, noncompetitive practices, and the competitive environment for Perrigo’s generic prescription drug unit; (c) Perrigo’s organic growth rate; and (d) a royalty stream for a drug called Tysabri.
On May 18, 2016, this Action was commenced in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
By Order dated February 10, 2017, the Court entered an order appointing Perrigo Institutional Investor Group (consisting of Migdal Insurance Company Ltd., Migdal Makefet Pension and Provident Funds Ltd., Clal Insurance Company Ltd., Clal Pension and Provident Ltd., Atudot Pension Fund for Employees and Independent Workers Ltd., and Meitav DS Provident Funds and Pension Ltd.) as Lead Plaintiff and approved its selection of Pomerantz LLP and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP as Lead Counsel.
On June 21, 2017, Lead Plaintiff filed the operative Amended Complaint. The Amended Complaint named as defendants Perrigo and former Perrigo CEO Joseph C. Papa, as well as former defendants Judy Brown, Laurie Brlas, Gary M. Cohen, Marc Coucke, Jacqualyn A. Fouse, Ellen R. Hoffing, Michael R. Jandernoa, Gerald K. Kunkle, Jr., Herman Morris, Jr., and Donal O’Connor (“Former Defendants”).
On August 21, 2017, Defendants and Former Defendants moved to dismiss the Amended Complaint. After full briefing, on July 27, 2018, the Court entered an order granting Marc Coucke’s motion to dismiss, and granting in part and denying in part the motion to dismiss filed by the Defendants and the Former Defendants other than Coucke. As a result of that order, all of the Former Defendants other than Judy Brown were dismissed from this Action. That order also dismissed claims regarding organic growth rate and Tysabri.
Thereafter, Defendants and Former Defendant Judy Brown answered the Amended Complaint, and Lead Plaintiff, Defendants, and Former Defendant Judy Brown commenced discovery. The Parties thereafter engaged in substantial discovery efforts, which included the litigation of several disputed issues related to the scope and breadth of discovery and the efforts by the U.S. Department of Justice to stay discovery in this Action. Substantively, the Parties’ discovery efforts included the production and review of over 3.4 million pages of documents from Defendants and non-parties to Lead Plaintiff, and 40 depositions of fact and expert witnesses.
On November 30, 2018, Lead Plaintiff moved for class certification. On November 14, 2019, after full briefing, the Court certified the Class, appointing Lead Plaintiff to be the Class Representative and its counsel to be Class Counsel. After Defendants’ petition for interlocutory appeal was denied, on July 10, 2020, Lead Plaintiff, Defendants and Former Defendant Judy Brown stipulated, and the Court ordered, that notice should issue regarding the pendency of class action.
Beginning in August 2020, the Class Notice was mailed to potential Class Members to notify them of, among other things: (i) the Court’s certification of the Action to proceed as a class action on behalf of the Class; and (ii) Class Members’ right to request to be excluded from the Class, the effect of remaining in the Class or requesting exclusion, and the procedure for requesting exclusion. The deadline for requesting exclusion from the Class pursuant to the Class Notice was December 3, 2020. A list of the persons and entities who requested exclusion pursuant to the Class Notice is available on the Notice tab of this website.
On April 9, 2021, Defendants Perrigo and Papa and Former Defendant Judy Brown each moved for summary judgment and to exclude Lead Plaintiff’s experts. The Summary Judgment record was voluminous with several hundred pages of briefing and statements of fact, and thousands of pages of exhibits. After full briefing and oral argument, on August 17, 2023, the Court entered an Order and issued an Opinion granting Former Defendant Judy Brown’s motion for summary judgment, granting in part and denying in part Defendants Perrigo and Papa’s motions for summary judgment, directing further briefing and argument on the issue of corporate scienter, and reserving ruling on the motions to exclude. The Parties completed that briefing and presented further argument to the Court on the issue of corporate scienter on November 16, 2023.
Throughout the pendency of this Action, the Parties engaged in extensive attempts to mediate this dispute, both before private mediators Hon. Daniel Weinstein (Ret.), Former Ambassador David Carden, and Jed Melnick, and before Magistrate Judge Leda D. Wettre. These efforts included four in-person mediation sessions between 2018 and 2024, and numerous Zoom sessions and phone calls. On February 29, 2024, Magistrate Judge Wettre issued a mediator’s proposal to settle this Action for $97 million. On March 6, 2024, the Parties accepted the proposal.
After additional negotiations regarding the specific terms of their agreement, the Parties entered into the Stipulation on April 4, 2024. The Stipulation sets forth the specific terms and conditions of the Settlement and can be viewed on the Important Documents tab of this website.
By Order dated April 23, 2024, the Court preliminarily approved the Settlement, authorized notice of the Settlement to be provided to potential Class Members, and scheduled the Settlement Hearing to consider whether to grant final approval to the Settlement.