Allegations
The filed complaint alleges that ICON Public Limited Company made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (a)ICON was suffering from a material loss of business due to customer cost reduction measures and other widespread funding limitations impacting the Company’s client base; (b)ICON’s purported functional service provision and hybrid model offerings were insufficient to shield the Company from the adverse effects of a significant market downturn; (c) the requests for proposals ICON received from its biotechnology customers during the Class Period were used in substantial part as price discovery tools, and thus were not indicative of underlying client demand; (d)ICON’s customers had canceled contracts, limited or reduced engagements, delayed clinical trial work, and/or failed to enter into new contracts with ICON for additional clinical trial work at historical rates once existing projects ended (or were scheduled to end) in 2024; (e)ICON’s two largest customers were diversifying their clinical research organization providers away from the Company; (f)as a result of (a)-(e) above, ICON’s reported net new business awards and book-to-bill metrics materially misrepresented client demand for ICON’s services; and (g)as a result of (a)-(f) above, ICON was tracking materially below the 2024 revenue and EPS guidance issued during the Class Period and such guidance lacked a reasonable factual basis.