In an opinion issued today, Judge Berman dismissed a putative securities fraud class action brought by shareholders of Ventrus Biosciences against the company and two of its officers. As Judge Berman summarized the plaintiffs’ claims:

At the core of the Complaint is the allegation that Defendants, as part of their efforts to raise capital for Ventrus, “touted” pre-2008 Phase II test results for VEN 309 conducted by the drug’s patent holder, Sam Amer, “[d]espite the fact that the small testing groups and subjective endpoints used in Amer’ s studies could not produce a reliable gauge of the efficacy of VEN 309.” Plaintiffs allege that Defendants’ misrepresentation of these Phase II test results-which were obtained during the second of three required stages of testing before a drug may obtain FDA approval-“misled investors as to VEN 309’s previous testing success and anticipated FDA approval,” and caused Plaintiffs to suffer economic loss when, on June 25, 2012, Ventrus disclosed that its Phase III clinical trial for VEN 309 “did not meet its endpoints” and that Ventrus would abandon its development of VEN 309.

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