Class certification has been granted in this class action lawsuit against Juno Therapeutics, Inc. ("Juno" or the "Company") and certain of its officers, in which Pomerantz is Lead Counsel. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Western District of Washington, and docketed under 16-cv-01083, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Juno securities between June 4, 2016 and July 7, 2016 inclusive (the "Class Period"). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act").
Juno is a biopharmaceutical company that is developing cell-based cancer immunotherapies. Its leading product candidate is called JCAR015, which is currently in clinical trials.
The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: Defendants made misleading partial disclosures about JCAR015's safety and made public misrepresentations or failed to disclose material facts of the death of patients in its Phase 2 clinical trial.
In May 2016, a patient in the Phase 2 trial of JCAR015—dubbed the "ROCKET" trial by Juno—died of a cerebral edema, a form of neurotoxicity. In late June or early July, two more patients in the ROCKET trial died of cerebral edemas. This caused the FDA to issue a clinical hold and forced Defendants to reveal the truth, which they finally did on July 7, 2016, after the market closed. On this news, the Company's share price fell $13.01, or 31.87%, to close at $27.81 on July 8, 2016.