New England Teamsters Pension Fund v. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

On July 24, 2025, Labaton Keller Sucharow was appointed Co-Lead Counsel in a securities class action against West Pharmaceuticals Services, Inc. (West or the Company) and three of its executives, Eric M. Green, Bernard J. Birkett, and Quintin J. Lai (collectively, Defendants).  The lawsuit alleges violations of federal securities laws, under §§10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, on behalf of all persons or entities that purchased or otherwise acquired West common stock between February 16, 2023, and February 12, 2025, inclusive (the Class Period).

West is a medical supplies company that specializes in elastomer-based supplies for injectable drugs, including syringes, stoppers, and plungers, as well as more complex devices like auto-injectors and self-injection platforms.  

According to the Complaint filed in May 2025, during the COVID-19 pandemic, West experienced a significant increase in demand for its injectable components for COVID-19 vaccine delivery devices.  At the same time, supply chain disruptions prompted customers to stockpile other products.  The pandemic-driven surge temporarily inflated the Company’s revenues and margins.  Because customers purchased more products than they could use during the pandemic, they needed to buy fewer products when the pandemic ended.  As a result, West experienced a significant slowdown throughout 2023 and 2024, even while the Company assured investors that they had strong visibility into customer inventory levels and their demand for the Company’s products.  

The lawsuit alleges that West misled investors into believing its financial pressures were temporary and industry-wide while failing to disclose that customer losses and margin deterioration posed a substantial threat to the Company’s profitability.  Specifically, the case alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements by failing to disclose that (a) despite claiming strong visibility into customer demand and attributing headwinds to temporary COVID-related product destocking, there was significant and ongoing destocking across its high-margin proprietary products portfolio; (b) West’s SmartDose wearable injector device, which was positioned as a high-margin growth product, was highly dilutive to the Company’s profit margins due to operational inefficiencies; and (c) these margin pressures created the risk of costly restructuring activities, including the Company’s exit from continuous glucose monitoring contracts with long-standing customers.

The case is New England Teamsters v. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., 25-cv-02285 (E.D. Pa.).  Labaton Keller Sucharow represents AkademikerPension - Akademikernes Pensionskasse, Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi, and the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme.