Mylan announced today that it has filed a civil suit against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the authors of what it claims were "sensational and misleading" reports on quality control procedures at its manufacturing facility in Morgantown, W.V.
Those reports, published on July 26, led to a 13 percent drop in Mylan's stock. Once the FDA cleared the company, Mylan CEO Robert Coury took no time making his feelings known: "The baseless speculation that was caused by a highly irresponsible and sensational newspaper article with a biased agenda was entirely unnecessary," the CEO said in a statement issued on August 13. "Our customers and stakeholders recognize that there is no one in a better position to speak about issues such as these than a company's senior management or the applicable regulatory agency. It would be a mistake for anyone to rely on uninformed sources."
Mylan's stock has since rebounded, but in a statement released today, the company says it has "no other alternative but to address this type of misconduct." The Canonsburg, Pa.-based company filed the complaint in West Virginia's Circuit Court of Monongalia County. In it, the company claims the documents used to back up the story were confidential reports "improperly" obtained. Mylan's complaint accuses Post-Gazette staffers of probing Mylan employees for at least two months. Reporters were apparently able to convince someone to hand over those documents, which they then distributed to third parties without Mylan's consent--despite the documents being clearly labeled as confidential.
"The sensational misuse of the documents caused harm to Mylan and its shareholders, evidenced by substantial market volatility, a decrease in its stock price, and the resulting decrease in market capitalization, all of which occurred on the second largest trading day in Mylan's history," the company said in its complaint. Mylan is seeking the return of those documents, as well as compensation.
In response, Johnson Robinson-Block, the Post-Gazette's publisher and editor-in-chief had this to say:"We have not seen the complaint so we cannot comment on it. But the Post-Gazette stands fully behind its reporting and its news-gathering and we will defend the suit vigorously."
- here's the release
- more at the the West Virginia Record