CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/-- Transkaryotic Therapies,
Inc. (Nasdaq: TKTX) today announced that the Business Litigation Session of
the Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston, Massachusetts granted the
defendants' motion to dismiss the shareholder derivative lawsuit brought
against certain current and former members of TKT's Board of Directors in
April 2003. The complaint alleges that the defendants breached fiduciary
duties owed to the company and its shareholders by disseminating materially
false and misleading statements to the market, failing to correct such
statements, and causing or allowing the company to conduct its business in an
unsafe, imprudent and unlawful manner.
The Superior Court noted in its opinion that " ... a reading of the
complaint, however lengthy, does not provide a 'reasonable doubt' that any
activities by the directors, individually or as a group, were otherwise than
the product of a valid exercise of business judgment." A copy of the opinion
is available online at http://www.tktx.com.
About TKT
Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company primarily
focused on researching, developing and commercializing treatments for rare
diseases caused by protein deficiencies. Within this focus, the company
markets Replagal(TM), an enzyme replacement therapy for Fabry disease, and is
developing treatments for Hunter syndrome and Gaucher disease. Outside its
focus on rare diseases, TKT intends to commercialize Dynepo(TM), its Gene-
Activated(R) erythropoietin product for anemia related to kidney disease, in
the European Union. TKT was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, with additional operations in Europe, Canada and Latin America.
Additional information about TKT is available on the company's website at
http://www.tktx.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding TKT's
defense of a shareholder derivative lawsuit as well as statements containing
the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "estimates,"
"intends," "should," "could," "will," "may," and similar expressions. There
are a number of important factors that could cause the company's actual
results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking
statements, including: whether the decision of the Superior Court will be
appealed or whether the plaintiff will seek other relief from the court's
decision and if so, whether the defendants will be successful in such process;
whether the company will be able to successfully defend any other proceeding,
including the purported shareholder class action lawsuit and/or the formal
investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission in which the company
is currently involved; and other factors set forth under the caption "Risk
Factors" in the company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on April 28, 2004,
which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are
incorporated herein by reference. While the company may elect to update
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, even if its expectations
change.
Gene-Activated(R) is a registered trademark and Replagal(TM) is a
trademark of Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. Dynepo(TM) is a trademark of
Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
CONTACT:
Justine E. Koenigsberg
Director, Corporate Communications
(617) 349-0271
Daniella M. Lutz
Corporate Communications Specialist
(617) 349-0205
SOURCE Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc.
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.tktx.com
Photo Notes:
NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990913/TKTLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 212-782-2840
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/120657.html
CONTACT:
Justine E. Koenigsberg, Director, Corporate
Communications, +1-617-349-0271, or Daniella M. Lutz, Corporate
Communications Specialist, +1- 617-349-0205, both of
Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc.
|
