The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a securities fraud suit against biopharmaceutical company Sorrento Therapeutics, concluding its claims that it found a “cure” for COVID-19, which led to a spike in stock prices, wasn’t materially false or misleading.

The appellate court affirmed a judgment by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia of the Southern District of California, which granted the motion to dismiss plaintiff Andrew R. Zenoff’s suit against the defendants, Sorrento and the company’s CEO and vice president. The Ninth Circuit agreed that statements made in a press release, a Fox News article, and a Biospace.com article weren’t materially false or misleading, and determined that the allegations in Zenoff’s class action complaint didn’t support the necessary strong inference of scienter “in defendants’ intent to improperly manipulate the price of Sorrento’s shares,” according to the March 25 opinion.