Lawsuit Overview
January 7, 2014 - The case was voluntarily dismissed.
November 1, 2013 - An investor in shares of Unilife Corporation (NASDAQ: UNIS) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against Unilife Corporation over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws made in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between July 13, 2011 and September 9, 2013.
The Complaint alleges that between July 13, 2011 and September 9, 2013, Unilife Corporation made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about Unilife Corporation's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically the complaint claims that Unilife Corporation made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1)Unilife Corporation's Unifill syringes failed to comply with the Food and Drug Administration's ( FDA ) validation processes (2) Unilife Corporation's Quality Management System failed to comply with FDA regulations; (3) Unilife Corporation purposefully increased its purchases of Unifill component parts to make suppliers believe that Unilife Corporation was producing at increased volumes despite the fact that there was no customer demand or manufacturing capacity to support such purchases; and (4) as a result of the foregoing, the Unilife Corporation's statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On August 30, 2013, a former Unilife Corporation employee named Talbot Smith filed a complaint against Unilife Corporation alleging that Unilife Corporation terminated his employment for reporting various regulatory violations to the appropriate authorities. For example, Smith alleges that Unilife Corporation purposefully ran fake production at Unilife Corporation's facility in order to lead visiting investors to believe that demand for tUnilife Corporation's products were high. Moreover, according to Smith, Unilife Corporation purposefully suppressed internal reports demonstrating that the cost of developing Unilife Corporation's syringes were higher than the price Unilife Corporation was able to sell to customers.
On September 3, 2013, Forbes published an article concluding that Unilife Corporation's main manufacturing facility was operating at 3% of capacity, or roughly 2 million syringes per annum. On this news, Unilife Corporation securities declined $0.52 per share or more than 14%, to close at $3.03 per share on September 4, 2013. Unilife Corporation designs and manufactures medical devices. Unilife Corporation produces retractable syringes.