NEW ORLEANS, April 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (“KSF”) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until June 25, 2024 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Akero Therapeutics, Inc. (NasdaqGS: AKRO), if they purchased or otherwise acquired the Company’s shares between September 13, 2022 and October 9, 2023, inclusive (the “Class Period”). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
What You May Do
If you purchased shares of Akero and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nasdaqgs-akro/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by June 25, 2024.
About the Lawsuit
Akero and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.
The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) approximately 20% of patients enrolled in the SYMMETRY study for the Company’s lead product candidate efruxifermin (“EFX”) had cryptogenic cirrhosis (and did not have definitive nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (“NASH”), a serious liver disease), at baseline; (ii) the cryptogenic cirrhotic patients included in the SYMMETRY study did not have biopsy-proven compensated cirrhosis due to definitive NASH; (iii) the results from the cryptogenic cirrhosis patients were to be excluded from the calculation of the NASH resolution secondary endpoints; (iv) the Company had introduced a confounding factor into the SYMMETRY study’s design, materially influencing the study’s potential results and increasing the risks that the study would fail to meet its primary endpoint; (v) the SYMMETRY study did not align with U.S. Food & Drug Administration guidance for testing a drug in treating NASH cirrhotics because Akero had not ruled out potential causes of each patient’s cirrhosis other than NASH; and (vi) consequently, the Company had materially misrepresented the nature of the SYMMETRY trial, its usefulness in supporting any new drug application, the likelihood that the SYMMETRY trial would be successful as measured by its primary endpoint, and the likelihood that EFX would become a commercial treatment for NASH cirrhotics.
The market finally began to learn the truth on October 10, 2023, pre-market, when the Company disclosed the study’s 36-week results, causing the price of Akero’s stock to fall $30.39 per share on October 10, 2023 and $3.11 per share on October 11, 2023 on higher than average volume – a decline of nearly 70% from the stock’s closing price of $48.54 per share on October 9, 2023.
The case is Klobus v. Akero Therapeutics, Inc., No. 24-cv-02534.
About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation’s premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients – including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors – in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.
To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
Contact:
Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner
lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com
1-877-515-1850
1100 Poydras St., Suite 960
New Orleans, LA 70163
