Life SciencesRSS

  • January 26, 2007

    AAI Appoints First Director Of Legal Advocacy

    The American Antitrust Institute, a pro-competition organization based in Washington, D.C., has appointed its first director of legal advocacy to focus on the organization’s increased interest in writing amicus briefs for antitrust cases nationwide.

  • January 18, 2007

    Ex-Milberg Weiss Antitrust Partners Join Pomerantz

    Two prominent antitrust attorneys will be joining the plaintiffs firm Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman & Gross LLP in March as partners in charge of its antitrust practice, the firm said Thursday.

  • January 17, 2007

    Foley & Lardner Filed Patent Application Late: Suit

    A pharmaceutical development company has sued Foley & Lardner LLP, claiming that the law firm filed its patent application late, allowing a competing company, also represented by the firm, to win priority protection.

  • January 5, 2007

    Mintz Levin Snares Health Care Partners For New York

    Mintz Levin has snared two new partners from a Chicago-based rival in an expansion of its New York health law office.

  • December 12, 2006

    Fish & Richardson Reels In Another Attorney

    With the hope of building one of the best pharmaceutical and biotech litigation practices in the country, Duane-David Hough has left his job at Ropes & Gray LLP to become a principal for Fish & Richardson P.C.

  • December 8, 2006

    Patent Attorneys Leave Sonnenschein To Found Firm

    Three IP attorneys have resigned from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal to form a law firm of their own, Biotactica LLC, armed with a “first of its kind” model for helping biotechnology innovators boost their life-sciences products from lab to market faster.

  • November 13, 2006

    Crowell Snags Health & Employment Boutique

    Crowell & Moring LLP has added 23 new attorneys to the firm by acquiring a health care and labor and employment boutique, along with three intellectual property partners from another firm.

  • July 17, 2006

    Law Firm Profile: Dechert LLP

    Dechert LLP has expanded at a sprinter’s pace in recent years. So quickly, in fact, that the firm’s growth will likely taper off in the near future, according to IP practice chair Martin J. Black.

  • October 24, 2006

    London Snapshot: Lovells

    Lovells may have competition these days in the intellectual property market in London but few firms were as concerned as the global powerhouse with IP issues 30 years ago.

  • October 3, 2006

    Paul Hastings Expands IP Group In D.C., N.Y.

    Paul Hastings LLP has been adding partners left and right, scooping up talent from rival law firms for its New York and Washington, D.C. IP practices.

  • September 21, 2006

    Senate Battle Lies Ahead For FDA Nominee

    President Bush's pick to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finally won approval from a crucial Senate committee, but doubt lingers over whether he can win confirmation from the full Senate.

  • September 14, 2006

    Baker Donelson Nabs White House Bigwig

    Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC has snagged a former White House policy advisor to chair the firm’s federal health policy group in Washington, D.C.

  • September 14, 2006

    Cadwalader Nabs Morgan Lewis Antitrust Partner

    Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP has reined in an antitrust special counsel to join the firm’s group from her position as a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

  • September 12, 2006

    Bristol-Myers Head Fired Amid Plavix Debacle

    After a troubled five-year stint, the embattled chief executive of Bristol-Myers Squibb has been fired, along with the company's general counsel, over the pharmaceutical giant's alleged mishandling of the Plavix patent dispute.

  • September 7, 2006

    Fulbright Raids Sonnenschein To Expand Health Care Group

    The national health care practice of Houston-based Fulbright & Jaworski LLP is beefing up with the addition of six lawyers, including two partners, who are joining the firm’s St. Louis office.

  • September 5, 2006

    Hunton & Williams Acquires L.A. Trial Boutique

    Hunton & Williams has acquired the trial boutique O’Donnell & Mortimer to start a West Coast office in Los Angeles and bolster the firm’s intellectual property and antitrust practices.

  • August 22, 2006

    Nixon Peabody Nets Three IP Attorneys

    Nixon Peabody LLP has nabbed three attorneys for its technology and intellectual property practice, acquiring intellectual property boutique Schwartz, Sung & Webster and adding the namesakes to its firm.

  • August 10, 2006

    Foley & Lardner Scores New Partner

    Foley & Lardner LLP has pulled in a seasoned partner to spearhead the firm’s health care venture effort for its Boston office.

  • August 8, 2006

    Baker & Daniels Nabs Two Biotech Lawyers

    Baker & Daniels LLP has signed on two partners to tailor its intellectual property practice to its clients in the life sciences industry.

  • August 3, 2006

    Howrey Loses Renowned IP Chair

    The head of the intellectual property group at Howrey LLP's London office, who was brought in three years ago to bolster the firm’s European IP practice, is moving to the British firm CMS Cameron McKenna over conflicts of interest at her former firm.

Expert Analysis

  • The Role Of IP In Medical Device Investments

    Dinesh Melwani

    As the economy improves and investment dollars become available to medical device companies, any company seeking investors must pay attention to its patents, ensuring that it has not infringed third-party rights and that its patent portfolio provides the necessary protection to maintain market exclusivity, say Les Bookoff and Dinesh Melwani of Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP.

  • Section 102: A Dead Letter For Qualifying Claims

    Anthony Kuhlmann

    The desire of the Prometheus court to avoid rendering as a dead letter the "law of nature" exception to § 101 patent-eligibility has, apparently unwittingly, rendered § 102 a dead letter for certain types of claims, say Anthony Kuhlmann and Barry Wilson of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.

  • In Texas, The Learned Intermediary Doctrine Holds Steady

    Julie Hardin

    In an important decision for the pharmaceutical industry, the Texas Supreme Court has rejected in Centocor v. Hamilton the latest attempt to create a direct-to-consumer advertising exception to the learned intermediary doctrine, which has guided the industry’s duty to warn for decades, say Julie Hardin and Darren Lindamood of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.

  • Determining A Product's Defect By Its Primary Use

    Julie Greenberg

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's opinion in Beard v. Johnson & Johnson has provided manufacturers of multiuse products with significant defenses in product liability actions that arise from only one of the product's multiple uses, say Kenneth Argentieri and Julie Greenberg of Duane Morris LLP.

  • EU Data Protection — Implications For Clinical Studies

    Mathias Schulze Steinen

    Although the EU's new data protection framework will continue many of the established principles of existing EU data protection law, there are significant changes that will affect the day-to-day business of companies in the life sciences and health care sectors. It will have an important impact on sponsors, investigators and other parties involved in clinical trials, say attorneys with K&L Gates LLP.

  • Joint Ventures In China: What Every CEO Should Know

    James Chapman

    There are a number of reasons that few joint ventures in China succeed while most fail, including differing expectations, overestimation of the Chinese partner’s market position, and conflicting management styles. A number of best practices may help increase the likelihood of success and avoid millions of dollars of losses, says James Chapman of Foley & Lardner LLP.

  • Tackling A Circuit Splitter: Amgen In The High Court

    Robert Horowitz

    Must a plaintiff in a securities fraud class action prove that the alleged misrepresentations or omissions are material in order to obtain class certification? That is the issue the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider when it granted certiorari in Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds v. Amgen, says Robert Horowitz of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

  • Lights, Camera, Courtroom: Lessons From Mike Wallace

    Bernard Resser

    While video recording, digitizing and displaying evidence may add modestly to the out-of-pocket expenses of preparing a case for trial, the impact is often so profound that it will leverage your case to achieve a favorable settlement or victory, just as Mike Wallace’s interviews led the way for 60 Minutes to become one of the most successful television shows in history, says Bernard Resser of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP.

  • Another Approach To The Unsafe Product Exclusion

    Melody Akhavan

    The U.S. District Court for the District of Pennsylvania has issued a ruling in Kee v. Zimmer that is interesting in light of the varied approaches different jurisdictions have taken with respect to the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A’s unavoidably unsafe product exclusion — and not just as applied to prescription medical devices, says Melody Akhavan of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.

  • FSMA’s Potential Impact, Part 2: Title And Risk Of Loss

    Michael Plunkett

    With the Food Safety Modernization Act's potential impact on commercial relationships, it's a good time to take a fresh look at the title and risk-of-loss provisions in any commercial agreements — and to be mindful of the additional seizure risk posed by the FSMA when negotiating delivery terms, says Michael Plunkett of Blank Rome LLP.