NEW YORK (360Dx) – Accelerate Diagnostics said today that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit signed an order dismissing the plaintiffs' appeal of a class action lawsuit filed against Accelerate and some of the firm's executives.
Shortly before the appeal was scheduled to be argued, the plaintiffs voluntarily requested that their case be dismissed without seeking a settlement, Accelerate said.
Steven Schatz, a lawyer at the firm Wilson Sonsini who represented Accelerate and its executives, said in a statement, "This is a case that should have never been brought. Accelerate and the individual defendants acted entirely properly."
The lawsuit was filed in March 2015 against the company, its President and CEO Lawrence Mehren, and CFO Steve Reichling. It alleged that the defendants made false or misleading statements about the Accelerate Pheno system, formerly the BACcel System.
The class action suit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Arizona by plaintiff Brian Rapp on behalf of all persons or entities that purchased Accelerate Diagnostics securities between March 7, 2014 and Feb. 17, 2015.
The suit alleged that Accelerate made false and misleading statements to investors by failing to disclose that the firm's main product, the BACcel ID/AST rapid diagnostic platform, requires a positive blood culture.
The defendants denied all such allegations.
In January of last year, the US District Court in Arizona granted Accelerate's motion to dismiss the case with prejudice. The plaintiffs subsequently filed an appeal challenging the decision of the district court.
A year and a half later, after fully briefing the case and on the cusp of oral arguments, the plaintiffs abandoned their appeal, Accelerate said.