According to the Complaint, SeaStar Medical Holding Corporation initially operated as a special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) under the name LMF Acquisition Opportunities, Inc. On April 22, 2022, the Company, then still operating as a SPAC, and SeaStar Medical, Inc. ("Legacy SeaStar"), a medical technology company developing extracorporeal therapies to reduce the consequences of excessive inflammation on vital organs, jointly announced that they had entered into a merger agreement. On October 28, 2022, the Company and Legacy SeaStar consummated the Merger pursuant to the Merger Agreement. As a result of the Merger, Legacy SeaStar's business, operations, and management became the Company’s business, operations, and management, and the Company renamed itself “SeaStar Medical Holding Corporation.”
The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operations, and compliance policies. Specifically, the Complaint alleges Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) SeaStar and/or Legacy SeaStar had deficient compliance controls and procedures related to the HDE Application to the FDA for use of Selective Cytopheretic Device ("SCD"); (ii) accordingly, there were deficiencies with the HDE Application, the FDA was unlikely to approve the HDE Application in its present form, and the SCD’s regulatory prospects were overstated; (iii) the Company had downplayed the true scope and severity of deficiencies in its financial controls and procedures, while overstating Defendants’ efforts to remediate the same; (iv) accordingly, SeaStar had failed to properly account for the classification of certain outstanding warrants and the Prepaid Forward Agreement; (v) as a result, SeaStar was likely to restate one or more of its previously issued financial statements; (vi) accordingly, SeaStar’s post-Merger business and financial prospects were overstated; and (vii) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.