DOJ, SEC cost Viatris govt with insider buying and selling; co says he’s on depart of absence

The U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Change Fee (SEC) on Thursday introduced insider buying and selling fees towards Ramkumar Rayapureddy, the chief data officer of generic drugmaker Viatris (NASDAQ:VTRS).

The SEC and DOJ alleged that from 2017 by way of 2019 – at which era VTRS was referred to as Mylan – Rayapureddy disclosed private details about the corporate to his former colleague Dayakar Mallu.

The knowledge included FDA drug approvals, monetary outcomes and Mylan’s impending merger with Pfizer (PFE) unit Upjohn that created Viatris (VTRS) in November 2020.

“We take the federal government’s allegations made right now towards Ramkumar Rayapureddy very severely and can proceed to overview the matter in the identical trend,” a Viatris (VTRS) spokesperson advised Looking for Alpha in an emailed assertion.

“Ramkumar Rayapureddy is on a depart of absence from the corporate,” the assertion added.

The SEC in September final 12 months charged Dayakar Mallu with insider buying and selling as a consequence of his affiliation with Rayapureddy. Reuters had reported that Mallu had pleaded responsible to the fees.

“Rayapureddy is charged with one depend of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and three counts of securities fraud,” the DOJ mentioned in its assertion on Thursday, including that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was additionally wanting into the case.

“The SEC’s criticism fees Rayapureddy with violating Part 10(b) of the Securities Change Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder,” the U.S. market regulator mentioned in its assertion.

“We’ve and can proceed to completely cooperate with the authorities, and we count on to don’t have any additional touch upon this matter,” the VTRS spokesperson mentioned.

Earlier within the day, Viatris (VTRS) gained a patent-related court docket resolution on AstraZeneca’s bronchial asthma therapy Symbicort.

VTRS inventory earlier closed +4.7% at $11.34.