On June 15, 2017, Pomerantz LLP was appointed Lead Counsel in a class action lawsuit against Kitov Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd. (“Kitov” or the “Company”) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-00917, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Kitov American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) pursuant and/or tradeable to the Company’s initial public offering on or about November 20, 2015 (the “IPO”) and/or on the open market between November 20, 2015 and February 3, 2017, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants’ violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Kitov is a clinical development stage biopharmaceutical company that develops combination drugs for the simultaneous treatment of pain caused by osteoarthritis and hypertension. The Company’s lead drug candidate is KIT-302, a fixed dosage combination product based on the generic drugs celecoxib and amlodipine besylate, that has completed its Phase III clinical study.
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: (i) the Company and its Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) Isaac Israel published misleading information concerning the conduct of the Company’s clinical trials for its lead drug candidate KIT-302; and (ii) as a result of the foregoing, Kitov’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On February 6, 2017, the Israeli publication Calcalist reported that Kitov’s CEO Isaac Israel had been detained and questioned by the Israeli Securities Authority (“ISA”) on suspicion of publishing misleading information in connection with a clinical trial of KIT-302.
On this news, Kitov’s ADR price fell $0.33, or 11.46%, to close at $2.55 on February 6, 2017.
On February 7, 2017, the NASDAQ halted trading of Kitov’s ADRs. That same day, Kitov issued a news release, formally advising investors of the ISA’s investigation into the Company’s public disclosures regarding KIT-302.