(BFM Bourse) – Heavy fines required by the AMF college against biotech AB Science and its boss, this Friday, the financial policeman having notably requested three million against its CEO Alain Moussy for insider trading.
The college of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) on Friday demanded fines totaling six million euros against the biotechnology company AB Science, its CEO and a financial adviser for various shortcomings. During a public hearing before the AMF Sanctions Committee, the representative of the college demanded a million euro fine against the French biotech for not having provided full information to investors. . It also demanded three million against its CEO, Alain Moussy, and two million against a financial adviser for insider trading.
The main alleged facts date back to 2017, when the French biotech was trying to obtain marketing authorization for its drug candidate (masitinib) against mastocytosis, an orphan disease. In April of that year, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a negative opinion on the application for authorization of the molecule to treat severe systemic mastocytosis.
According to the representative of the AMF college, AB Science knew that it was likely that such an opinion would be issued as early as March 7, 2017, after a clarification teleconference on the clinical study. However, the biotech only communicated on May 17 on this subject, thus not ensuring the “full information of the investors”, according to the representative.
Between March and May 2017, the biotech carried out two fundraisers (15 million, then 19 million at the end of March), followed by a sale of securities held by its CEO Alain Moussy for more than 5 million euros. The representative of the AMF college believes that the fundraising would not have been as successful – with a loss of 10 million euros – if the information from the meeting had been communicated. According to the financial policeman, the CEO has also made a loss of 1.7 million euros by selling his shares.
AB Science defended itself by saying that, at that time, its survival depended on fundraising and that it had hoped for a favorable opinion until the last minute, also arguing that progress on the marketing of this drug did not would not have had a major influence on the share price. CEO Alain Moussy, 491st fortune in France in 2021 according to the magazine Challengestold him that he had made the decision to sell his shares in December 2016 to repay a loan.
On the stock market, the AB Science share fell 2.8% to 9.08 euros, close to its annual low hit on December 31.
(with AFP)
Quentin Soubranne – ©2022 BFM Bourse
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