Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP ("Coughlin Stoia”) (http://www.csgrr.com/cases/kv/)
today announced that a class action has been commenced in the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on behalf of
purchasers of KV Pharmaceutical Company ("KV” or the "Company”) Class A
Common Stock (NYSE: KV-A), Class B Common Stock (NYSE: KV-B) and 7%
cumulative convertible Preferred Stock (Symbol: KVPHP or CUSIP:
482740305) during the period between February 15, 2008 and November 12,
2008 (the "Class Period”).
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later
than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any
questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please
contact plaintiff’s counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of
Coughlin Stoia at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@csgrr.com.
If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint
as filed or join this class action online at http://www.csgrr.com/cases/kv/.
Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead
plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing
and remain an absent class member.
The complaint charges KV and certain of its officers and directors with
violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. KV engages in the
development, manufacture, acquisition, marketing, and sale of branded
and generic/nonbranded prescription pharmaceutical products.
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants made
materially false and misleading statements about KV’s compliance with
federal regulations concerning the manufacture and marketing of certain
generic drug products as well as the Company’s current and future
financial prospects. Specifically, defendants failed to disclose: (i)
that KV’s manufacturing facilities were in disarray resulting in the
manufacture of unsafe drug products that would have to be recalled due
to the fact that they may contain oversized tablets that may contain
more than the intended levels of the active drug ingredient, which could
result in patients receiving as much as about twice the expected dosage
of these drugs; (ii) that KV’s management engaged in misconduct by
failing to recall the Company’s unsafe drug products; (iii) that KV’s
manufacturing facilities failed to comply with federal regulations,
including FDA requirements and guidelines, generally referred to as
current "Good Manufacturing Practices;” (iv) that manufacturing
disruptions and inefficiencies were resulting in a material backlog of
unshipped customer orders, thus further eroding the Company’s revenues
and earnings; (v) that the Company failed to write off at least $24
million in inventories of discontinued products, seized by the U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri due to defendants’
violation of FDA enforcement notices; (vi) that KV’s post-January 2008
sales of generics were being negatively impacted by material price
erosion following the expiration of the Company’s exclusive sales period
for the drug metoprolol succinate; (vii) that KV’s financial statements
failed to comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; and
(vii) that, based on the foregoing, defendants lacked a reasonable basis
for their current and future financial prospects.
Then, on November 13, 2008, KV announced that it would be unable to file
its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 due to a
continuing investigation by the Company’s Audit Committee into
allegations of management misconduct concerning recalls of the Company’s
drug products. Following this statement, the price of KV common stock
fell from $14.26 per share to $5.90 per share – a drop of nearly 59% -
on extremely heavy volume of more than 6.6 million shares, 33 times the
stock’s average trading volume.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of KV
publicly traded securities the Class Period (the "Class”). The plaintiff
is represented by Coughlin Stoia, which has expertise in prosecuting
investor class actions and extensive experience in actions involving
financial fraud.
Coughlin Stoia, a 190-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C.,
Philadelphia and Atlanta, is active in major litigations pending in
federal and state courts throughout the United States and has taken a
leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded investors,
consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human rights violations.
The Coughlin Stoia Web site (http://www.csgrr.com)
has more information about the firm.