Biovail Stock Manipulation Case Runs On (BVF)

Still reeling from this weekend’s massive media assault in support of Biovail’s stock manipulation suit against hedge fund SAC Capital Management and research house Gradient Analytics, among others? Well, what none of the coverage (see below) got to was another piece of litigation involving Biovail founder Eugene Melnyk’s interests – in this case, one of his horses.

Kathir won the 2004 Barbados Gold Cup – the Carribean’s richest horse race – in March that year, but was disqualified 10 months later, in January 2005, after testing positive from the anti-inflammatory corticosteroid methylprednisolone. Melnyk is contesting the disqualification, alleging hedge fund manipulation flawed handling of the test samples, and a spokesman for the Barbados Turf Club confirmed that the legal proceedings have yet to be resolved.

The Biovail Corp. stock manipulation suit was the subject of a new law suit and a major media push over the weekend. In chronological order:

On Friday, a New Jersey law firm launched a $4 billion shareholder class action against many of the same defendants – principally, Gradient Analytics and hedge fund SAC Capital Management - named in Biovail’s original litigation, which was filed last month.

On Saturday, The New York Post’s Roddy Boyd reported the “scathing assessments