Fake news? Nar­can mak­er forced to re­fute li­cens­ing deal af­ter wire ser­vice ap­par­ent­ly duped by false an­nounce­ment

While most every­one was in a TGIF mood and get­ting ready for the week­end, Opi­ant Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals spent last Fri­day af­ter­noon fend­ing off a fake press re­lease.

The San­ta Mon­i­ca, CA-based biotech’s stock shot up ear­ly Fri­day on re­ports that it had agreed to a li­cens­ing deal with Hik­ma Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals on an ex­per­i­men­tal nasal spray to treat opi­oid over­dos­es. But trad­ing was halt­ed af­ter shares rose about 25%, and soon af­ter Opi­ant re­vealed that the press re­lease an­nounc­ing the deal was “fake.”

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