Pomerantz Appointed Co-Lead Counsel in Homology Medicines Securities Litigation

On July 1, 2022, U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha of the Central District of California appointed Pomerantz LLP as Co-Lead Counsel on behalf of Jason Rofeh – the Co-Lead Plaintiff, and the class, in Pizzuto v. Homology Medicines, Inc., 22-cv-1968 (C.D. Cal.). This securities action alleges that Homology Medicines, Inc. ("Homology" or the "Company") misled the market regarding the efficacy of its lead product candidate, HMO-102 – a gene therapy for the treatment of phenylketonuria in adults – and overstated the regulatory and commercial prospects for the drug.

Homology is a genetic medicines company that develops treatments for rare genetic diseases at the genetic level, including gene therapy, gene editing and gene correction solutions.

Allegations against Homology include that: (i) the Company had overstated HMI-102’s efficacy and risk mitigation; (ii) accordingly, it was unlikely that the Homology would be able to commercialize HMI-102 in its present form; and (iii) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On July 21, 2020, Mariner Research (“Mariner”) published a report that was focused on an HMI-102 dose escalation trial in which it alleged that Homology concealed data showing HMI-102’s lack of efficacy and indicating that the program was unlikely to proceed to commercialization.

On this news, Homology’s share price fell 10.3%.

Then, on February 18, 2022, Homology disclosed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had notified it that its “gene therapy trial of HMI-102 in adults with phenylketonuria has been placed on clinical hold due to the need to modify risk mitigation measures in the study in response to observations of elevated liver function tests” and that the Company expected to “receive an official clinical hold letter within 30 days.”

On this news, Homology’s share price fell a further 32.6%.