Glancy Binkow & Goldberg Files Lawsuit Against Genzyme

Law firm, Glancy Binkow & Goldberg has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court of Massachusetts, seeking a class action status on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased the common stock of Genzyme between June 26, 2008 and July 21, 2009.

The complaint charges Genzyme and its CEO with violations of federal securities laws. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants failed to disclose serious problems and operational deficiencies at two of Genzyme’s manufacturing facilities. It eventually caused a shortage of one of the company’s products – Myozyme (a treatment for a rare genetic disorder), and delayed approval of Lumizyme.

Reportedly, the manufacturing problems also forced the company to halt production of two of its leading products, Cerezyme and Fabrazyme, resulting from contamination at one of the facilities.

Earlier, after two inspections of Genzyme, the federal FDA noted practices at the facility had deviated from FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards. Genzyme failed to promptly disclose FDA’s observations, even though defendants knew that FDA would not grant marketing approval for Lumizyme until those problems were corrected.

Also in 2008, two instances of contamination at Genzyme manufacturing facilities were not timely disclosed to investors, even though the contamination negatively affected Genzyme’s ability to meet consumer demand for Myozyme and eventually caused a supply shortage of that product.