The New Jersey Star-Ledger has this article discussing a securities class action lawsuit against BMS regarding Vanlev, "a high-blood pressure drug candidate Bristol once touted as a potential billion-dollar seller but abruptly withdrew from clinical trials three years ago."  According to the article,

The Vanlev lawsuit is unusual because Bristol appears prepared to go to trial instead of settle out of court. The company paid $839 million in restitution and settlements related to the accounting scandal.

Over the past 12 months, there have been approximately 240 class- action shareholder lawsuits filed nationwide. But only five cases have actually gone to trial since 1995, said Bruce Carton, a vice president at Maryland-based Securities Class Action Services, which tracks such lawsuits.

First, let me just boldly predict (unburdened by any knowledge of the facts or law involved in the case) that the case will not go to trial--as per the statistics from Count Carton above, such trials are incredibly rare and we are, after all, talking about the same BMS that recently settled a different securities class action for $300 million after winning a motion to dismiss.

Second, the statistic attributed to me above that "only five cases have actually gone to trial since 1995" should be clarified--I was referring to the number of Post-Reform Act cases resulting in a verdict, which I then believed to be five ( In re: Health Management; In Re Real Estate Associates Limited Partnerships; In re: Clarent Corp. ; Thane International; and Safety-Kleen.  However, as discussed here, Safety-Kleen settled during trial, so the number should be four.  Until someone sends me an email about another trial, at which time the number will be back to five.  And so on.