Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE – BMY), a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in New York, has announced a preliminary agreement to settle the securities class action pending against the company in the D.N.J. The background of the case, which was set to go to trial, is discussed in this post from last August.
The settlement is for $185 million. The plaintiffs announced that it is the “largest recovery ever obtained against a pharmaceutical company in a securities fraud case involving the development of a new drug” and that Bristol-Myers has agreed to publicly disclose the clinical study design and the results of clinical trials for every drug it markets. The company, however, was less committal about the non-financial aspects of the settlement, telling the Associated Press that it “already had two Web sites where it discloses clinical trial results.”
In 2004, Bristol-Myers paid $300 million to settle a different securities class action relating to alleged financial misstatements.
The 10b-5 Daily 