Did Mylan divulge confidential information to some selected investors last fall? The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to know. The regulator has asked several investment banks about a September meeting of company officials, analysts and a group of investors. The day after that meeting, the Wall Street Journal reports, Mylan's shares shot up 7 percent on trading that was three times the average volume.
Mylan says the SEC also asked it for information about that meeting. "We provided [the information] and are confident the communications made during the conference were entirely appropriate," a spokesman told the WSJ.
Here's what we know about that meeting: It was held at a West Virginia manufacturing facility. About a dozen Wall Street analysts from firms such as UBS and Goldman Sachs attended. And, according to WSJ sources, those analysts each were allowed to bring two investors. There was no public broadcast.
Now, investor meetings aren't required to be broadcast, but companies aren't supposed to give out any information in those meetings that hasn't already been disclosed. If nonpublic info slips out, however, SEC rules require that the information be disclosed promptly. Mylan didn't file any SEC documents about the meeting in question, the Journal reports.
Of course, a probe is just a probe, and the SEC could determine that Mylan didn't tell any secrets or otherwise run afoul of regulations. But the very fact that the SEC is investigating that meeting is another sign of the stepped-up enforcement going on around Washington. Drugmakers have been feeling the FDA's increased scrutiny for a while now. Now it appears that the SEC is watching more closely, too.
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