McGuire v. Dendreon Corp.

267 F.R.D. 690, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61921, 2010 WL 2196109
District Court, W.D. Washington·Decided May 27, 2010·No. No. C07-800·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

[692] ORDER ON MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION

MARSHA J. PECHMAN, District Judge.

This matter is the named Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. This Court, having received and reviewed

1. Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification (Dkt. No. 137)
2. Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification (Dkt. No. 151)
3. Plaintiffs’ Reply in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification (Dkt. No. 156)

and all attached declarations and exhibits, makes the following ruling:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiffs’ motion is GRANTED; a class will be certified in this matter as follows:

A class of persons and entities who purchased the common stock of Dendreon Corporation between March 29, 2007 and May 8, 2007, both dates inclusive (excluding the defendants, the officers and directors of Dendreon, members of their immediate families, and the heirs, successors or assigns of any of the foregoing).
A further subclass consisting of persons and entities who purchased the common stock of Dendreon Corporation on April 2, 2007 (excluding the defendants, the officers and directors of Dendreon, members of their immediate families, and the heirs, successors or assigns of any of the foregoing).

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Kenneth McGuire and David Wilczynski are appointed as the Class representatives, David Wilczynski is appointed the Subclass representative, and their counsel of record—Sus-man Godfrey L.L.P—is appointed as Class counsel.

I. BACKGROUND

This Court appointed McGuire as the lead plaintiff in this action. (Dkt. No. 40 at 9.) McGuire and Wilczynski have filed a Third Amended Complaint, which is the operative complaint at this time. (Dkt. No. 118.)

The complaint alleges that the defendants misrepresented the results of a United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) inspection of Dendreon’s manufacturing facilities, and that Gold engaged in insider trading when he sold Dendreon stock with full knowledge of the results of the inspection and before the results were publicly disclosed. (Id. at 2-7.)

Dendreon is a biotechnology company developing Provenge, a cancer treatment product with a one-billion dollar potential market. (Id. at 2.) In mid-February 2007, the FDA conducted an inspection of Dendreon’s manufacturing facilities. (Id. at 3.) After the inspection, the FDA issued Dendreon an In-spectional Observations Report on Form 483 detailing multiple “significant objectionable conditions.” (Id.) Dendreon could not obtain FDA approval of Provenge until the “significant objectionable conditions” were resolved. (Id.)

On March 29, 2007, during a conference call with securities analysts and investors, one analyst asked Gold whether Dendreon’s facilities “passed muster.” (Id. at 4.) As Gold began to respond, Urdal interrupted and stated that “we hosted a good inspection.” (Id. at 4, 7.) The next day, Dendreon common stock experienced heavy trading volume and its price increased 343%. (Id. at 5.) Four days later, Gold sold 24% of his holdings of Dendreon stock for approximately $2.7 million. (Id.)

On May 8, 2007, the FDA rejected Den-dreon’s application to approve Provenge, citing the inspection issues as one of the two reasons for its decision. (Id.) The market price of Dendreon common stock dropped from $17.74 to $6.33 per share that day. (Id.) On May 10, 2007, during a conference call with securities analysts and investors, defendants acknowledged for the first time that the Form 483 had been issued in February, it identified multiple “significant objectionable conditions,” and the FDA had cited those same issues in declining to approve Provenge. (Id.)

Plaintiffs seek certification of a class with a class period beginning on March 29, 2007, the date of the first conference call, running through May 8, 2007, the day just before the [693] disclosure of the FDA’s rejection of Den-dreon’s application to approve Provenge. Both McGuire and Wilezynski purchased shares of Dendreon common stock during the Class Period. (Id. at 8.) McGuire and Wile-zynski contend that Defendants’ actions violated federal securities laws and that they and others who purchased Dendreon stock during the Class Period were injured and suffered damages as a result of these violations. Plaintiffs also seek certification of a subclass consisting of people who purchased Dendreon stock on April 2, 2007, the date Gold sold his shares. Wilezynski purchased 5,200 shares of Dendreon stock on that date. (Id at 38.)

II. ANALYSIS

A. Legal Standards

This Court is given discretion over whether to certify a class. Yokoyama v. Midland Nat. Life Ins. Co., 594 F.3d 1087, 1090 (9th Cir.2010). This Court may certify a class only if:

(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable;
(2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class;
(3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class; and
(4) the' representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class

Rodriguez v. Hayes, 591 F.3d 1105, 1122 (9th Cir.2010) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)). The party seeking certification must also fall into one of three categories in Rule 23(b). Id Plaintiffs here seek certification under Rule 23(b)(3) which provides that this Court must find that common questions of law or fact predominate and the class action is superior to other methods of adjudication. Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3). This Court must conduct a “rigorous analysis” to determine if the prerequisites of 23(a) are satisfied. Chamberlan v. Ford Motor Co., 402 F.3d 952, 961 (9th Cir.2005) (per curiam).

The Ninth Circuit has recently clarified the standards applicable to class certification. See Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 603 F.3d 571 (9th Cir.2010) (en banc). The standard is:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

McGuire v. Dendreon Corp., 267 F.R.D. 690, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61921, 2010 WL 2196109 (W.D. Wash. 2010).

267 F.R.D. 690 (McGuire v. Dendreon Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related