SAN FRANCISCO, May 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, a national investor-rights law firm, alerts Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) investors to the newly filed class action lawsuit and the July 5, 2016 lead plaintiff deadline.

If you suffered significant losses because of your purchases of Express Scripts between February 24, 2015 and March 21, 2016 or have information that will help our investigation contact Hagens Berman Partner Reed Kathrein, who is leading the firm’s investigation by calling 510-725-3000, emailing ESRX@hbsslaw.com or visiting https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/ESRX.  The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and investors have until July 5, 2016 to move the court to participate as a lead plaintiff.

The litigation asserts Express Scripts’ relationship with its most important client – Anthem, Inc., – was rapidly deteriorating, in contrast with Defendants’ public statements otherwise. Unknown to investors, on February 16, 2015 and on April 1, 2015 Anthem served Express Scripts with a notice of default arising from material operational breaches, yet publicly Express Scripts represented “we’ve got a great relationship with Anthem….The relationship is very, very solid.”

On January 12, 2016, Anthem publicly threatened to end its relationship with Express Scripts unless it would renegotiate its agreement with Anthem to deliver more than $3 billion in annual savings.  As a result, the price of Express Scripts shares fell 7% to close at $79.69 on January 13, 2016.

On March 21, 2016, Anthem sued Express Scripts, claiming that Express Scripts breached its contractual duties to negotiate price terms in good faith and perform operational duties in a “prudent and expert manner”.  As a result, the price of Express Scripts shares fell 2.6% to close at $67.52 on March 22, 2016.

“Public companies are required to disclose material known risks to their business rather than generally disclaiming them,” said Hagens Berman partner Reed Kathrein. “The notices of default appear contrary to the representations of a very strong relationship.”

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Express Scripts should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new SEC whistleblower program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 510-725-3000 or email ESRX@hbsslaw.com.

About Hagens Berman
Hagens Berman is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices in 10 cities. The Firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the Firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Read the Firm’s Securities Newsletter, and visit the blog. For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw.

Contact:
Reed Kathrein, 510-725-3000

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