Life Sciences

  • March 06, 2024

    Corporate Vet Joins Orrick's Tech Group From Wilson Sonsini

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced that a former Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC tech attorney with over a decade of in-house experience has joined the firm's technology companies practice as a New York-based partner.

  • March 06, 2024

    Biopharmaceutical Biz Closes $259M Upsized Funding Round

    South San Francisco, California-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Alumis Inc. on Wednesday announced that it closed its upsized Series C funding round after securing $259 million from venture capital investors.

  • March 06, 2024

    Challenge To Pfizer Diversity Program Fails At 2nd Circ.

    The Second Circuit declined Wednesday to revive an advocacy group's suit claiming a Pfizer diversity fellowship unlawfully discriminated against white and Asian workers, ruling the nonprofit had no legal foothold because it wouldn't specifically identify anyone allegedly harmed.

  • March 06, 2024

    Ex-Stimwave CEO Found Guilty Of Healthcare Fraud

    A New York federal jury on Wednesday convicted the former CEO of Stimwave over allegations that the medical device maker sold an implant for chronic pain sufferers with a bogus component in order to drive up billings.

  • March 06, 2024

    Ohio Neurologist Can't Shorten His Drug Kickback Sentence

    An Ohio federal judge ruled an imprisoned neurologist cannot shorten his 30-month sentence for conspiring to collect illegal kickbacks for prescribing Nuedexta, a drug used to treat patients who have uncontrollable fits of laughter or crying, stating that his victims' vulnerability exempts him from his requested reduction.

  • March 05, 2024

    UMass, L'Oreal Fight Over Anti-Aging Cream May Be Near End

    Cosmetics brand L'Oreal and the University of Massachusetts told a Delaware federal judge they "have agreed to resolve" a purportedly ​​$200 million dispute over a method for adding an ingredient into moisturizing cream, nearly two years after a federal appeals court breathed new life into the patent case.

  • March 05, 2024

    White House To Crack Down On Illegal, Unfair Pricing

    President Joe Biden launched a new "strike force" Tuesday to stop companies from imposing unfair price hikes on consumers amid a rash of measures supporting the administration's push to boost competition and lower prices across the economy.

  • March 05, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Axing Pfizer Vax IP But Calls For More Info

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board rightly invalidated most of a Pfizer flu vaccine patent but was too hasty in its analysis when refusing to amend the patent, the Federal Circuit said Tuesday.

  • March 05, 2024

    Gibson Dunn AI Leader On Weathering The AI Policy Blizzard

    Like a mountaineer leading a team through a snowstorm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP's artificial intelligence co-chair Cassandra L. Gaedt-Sheckter is guiding companies developing and using artificial intelligence through a blizzard of new laws and regulations coming online in Europe and the U.S., saying that assessing AI risks is the North Star to mitigating them.

  • March 05, 2024

    Pharmacist Takes Deal In Mich. Over Fatal Meningitis Outbreak

    The founder of a Massachusetts drug compounding center that was the source of a deadly meningitis outbreak has pled no contest to 11 counts of manslaughter brought by Michigan state prosecutors, the latter state's Department of Attorney General announced Tuesday.

  • March 05, 2024

    Magnolia Medical Again Sues Kurin Over Sepsis IP

    Magnolia Medical has accused Kurin of continuing to infringe patents covering its diagnostic tests for sepsis and other bloodstream infections after Kurin lost a jury trial in 2022 over a different patent, claiming its rival has a "predatory business model."

  • March 05, 2024

    CVS Again Defeats NY AG's Drug Rebate Tying Claims

    A Manhattan judge on Tuesday threw out a second New York attorney general lawsuit accusing CVS Pharmacy Inc. of illegally forcing underserved hospitals to use its claims-processing subsidiary for federal drug reimbursements, saying the government still hasn't pled viable antitrust claims.

  • March 05, 2024

    FTC Chair Decries PE's Healthcare Impacts As Probe Starts

    Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan on Tuesday lamented what she deemed the "financialization" of healthcare resulting from private equity buyouts, in remarks coinciding with the launch of a multijurisdictional request for public comment on PE and other companies' growing control over the healthcare system.

  • March 05, 2024

    Avadel Told To Pay Jazz Pharma $234K Over Narcolepsy Drug IP

    A Delaware federal jury found Monday that a specialty drugmaker owes nearly $234,000 to drug manufacturer Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. for using a patented process behind its newer narcolepsy drug, launched last year to sales of over $28 million.

  • March 05, 2024

    GOP Sens. Voice Concern Over Biden Plan To Claim Patents

    Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the top Republican on the Senate health committee, and 16 other Senate Republicans recently aired concerns with the director of the National Institutes of Health about the Biden administration's plan to "illegally" seize drug patents.

  • March 05, 2024

    FDA Rejection Of Fosamax's Label Fix Not Final, 3rd Circ. Told

    Counsel for patients suing Merck over its osteoporosis drug Fosamax's alleged risk of causing painful bone fractures told a Third Circuit panel Tuesday that a Food and Drug Administration letter denying changes to the drug's label does not count as a final agency action triggering federal preemption of state law failure to warn claims.

  • March 05, 2024

    IP Litigation Vet Joins Wiggin and Dana's NY Office From LTL

    Wiggin and Dana LLP said Tuesday that it is welcoming a technology and life sciences expert from litigation boutique LTL Attorneys LLP to its intellectual property litigation group.

  • March 05, 2024

    DLA Piper Adds Merck SVP As New Life Sciences Sector Chair

    An experienced in-house attorney with a longtime passion for life sciences and medicine has left her position as a C-suite executive at biopharmaceutical giant Merck to join DLA Piper as the chair of its life sciences sector.

  • March 05, 2024

    Monsanto Nabs 1st Win In Philly's Roundup Trial Blitz

    A Philadelphia jury on Tuesday cleared Monsanto of liability in a Pennsylvania cancer patient's suit alleging he developed his illness after using the weed killer Roundup, handing the company its first win in the venue where plaintiffs have won more than $2.5 billion in damages on tort claims over the Bayer AG unit's signature product.

  • March 05, 2024

    J&J Trial Over Doctor's Cancer Death Ends In Hung Jury

    A Florida state judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after jurors said they were "hopelessly deadlocked" over whether Johnson & Johnson's baby powder caused the cancer that killed a Miami anesthesiologist.

  • March 04, 2024

    Crowell & Moring Int'l Names Global Life Sciences Head

    Crowell & Moring International LLC has hired a new chairman of its global life sciences group, who joins with over three decades of experience working to expand market access for healthcare, life sciences and medical device clients, the firm announced Tuesday.

  • March 04, 2024

    Elanco Urges Justices To Preserve Junk Fax Win

    Pet medicine company Elanco Animal Health Inc. has told the U.S. Supreme Court that its faxed invitations to a veterinarian seminar don't count under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's prohibition on unsolicited fax advertisements, as the Seventh Circuit ruled in July.

  • March 04, 2024

    WTO Conference Ends Without COVID IP Waiver Expansion

    The World Trade Organization did not reach an agreement at a conference last week on a proposal to expand a waiver on intellectual property for COVID vaccines to cover tests and treatments, a move welcomed by opponents of the plan.

  • March 04, 2024

    Trial Of Ex-Stimwave CEO Over Medical Device Nears End

    Prosecutors on Monday urged a Manhattan federal jury to convict the former CEO of Stimwave Technologies for hawking a medical device for chronic pain sufferers with a bogus component designed to drive up billings, while defense counsel derided a lack of evidence to support the government's claims.

  • March 04, 2024

    Bayer Pays $310M For European Rights To Heart Drug

    German pharmaceutical giant Bayer and public biopharmaceutical company BridgeBio announced Monday that they would form a $310 million partnership centered on the experimental heart drug acoramidis.

Expert Analysis

  • Evaluating Retroactivity Of Mich. Drugmaker Immunity Repeal

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    In assessing whether a new Michigan law lifting drugmakers' blanket immunity from product liability suits will apply retroactively, there are four key factors that Michigan courts will likely consider, say Sherry Knutson and Brenda Sweet at Tucker Ellis.

  • 4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year

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    As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.

  • FTC Rite Aid Order Holds Biometrics And AI Compliance Tips

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent enforcement action against Rite Aid over its use of facial biometric technology on customers provides lessons that can be leveraged to reduce and manage the risk of regulatory scrutiny of biometrics and artificial intelligence, says David Oberly at Baker Donelson.

  • Bribery Settlement Gives Insight On DOJ Policies

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    Chemical company Albemarle’s recent $218 million settlement with the government to resolve foreign bribery claims provides valuable data points for companies on the U.S. Department of Justice’s voluntary self-disclosure policy and its clawback pilot program, say Michael DeBernardis and Tiauna Mathieu at Hughes Hubbard.

  • SEC Case May Expand Scope Of Insider Trading Liability

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first-of-its-kind enforcement action against an individual in a case involving "shadow trading" demarcates an expansion of insider trading liability to circumstances in which there is a market connection between the source of information and the issuer of the securities traded, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • Opinion

    Waiving COVID-19 IP Protections Would Harm US Industry

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    President Joe Biden should turn down a World Trade Organization proposal to waive crucial intellectual property protections behind COVID-19 tests and diagnostics — protections that allow U.S. companies to sustain millions of jobs and develop life-saving treatments that benefit patients in every country, says former U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Michel, now at the Council for Innovation Promotion.

  • Fed. Circ. Patent Decisions In 2023: An Empirical Review

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    The Federal Circuit decided 306 patent cases last year, which is still well down from the pre-pandemic norm of around 440, and on the whole the court's decisions were markedly less patentee-friendly in 2023 than in 2022, says Dan Bagatell at Perkins Coie.

  • What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like

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    As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • 4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News

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    Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.

  • Digging Into The Debate On FDA's Proposed Lab Test Rule

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    A proposed 10-word amendment from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration represents a sea change in device regulation as it would summarily end decades of FDA enforcement discretion for laboratory developed tests, and the public comments offer some insight into the future of this long-running saga, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • How 2023 Shaped Drug And Medical Device Legal Trends

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    2023 brought a number of positive developments for the life sciences industry, including great trial and multidistrict litigation outcomes, but also some heavy-handed regulations and other concerning developments that lay the groundwork for significant litigation, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • Opinion

    What Insurers Gain When Litigating Coverage Denials

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    Lately, insurance companies have denied coverage for lawsuits alleging liability relating to the ordinary operations of highly regulated businesses, such as those in the pharmaceutical and energy sectors — demonstrating time and again how litigation can be a vehicle for carriers to mitigate their own costs, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Trending At The PTAB: 6 Areas To Watch In 2024

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    Expect further changes in a half-dozen areas in 2024 following a busy 2023 at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, including more adjustments to the director review process and the first case to hit the Appeals Review Panel, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • 5 Trends That Will Affect Food Litigation In 2024

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    In 2024, food and beverage companies are likely to continue to face threats of litigation relating to so-called forever chemicals, citric and malic acid, and ESG claims, but recent developments in case law have created potential avenues for defense, say Abby Meyer and Khirin Bunker at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

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    Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.

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