Two Pennsylvania law firms have filed class action lawsuits against Discovery Labs for allegedly misleading stockholders on Surfaxin's prospects for federal approval.

The suits, filed by the law offices of Bernard M. Gross and the firm Goldman, Scarlato & Karon on behalf of purchasers of Discovery's common stock, allege the company violated several provisions of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. The Gross lawsuit claims the company issued "a series of materially false and misleading statements" regarding Surfaxin's progress through the FDA and "repeatedly represented that they anticipated FDA approval of Surfaxin in April 2006".

Last week, Discovery announced that test batches of the drug showed stability problems, causing significant delays in the FDA approval process. The Gross lawsuit states that that in that announcement, "the company admitted that although it had been testing the 'production validation batches' periodically for 'stability,' stability had never been achieved."

Noting that the company's stock price dropped 53 percent on the news of Surfaxin's setback, Gross said the lawsuit seeks to recover damages suffered by stockholders.

Also, another firm, Schatz & Nobel, has filed a suit seeking class action status on behalf of Discovery stockholders for the same allegations. All three filings are in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.