Life Sciences

  • September 04, 2024

    Zoetis Sanctions Bid Denied In Racehorse Death Suit

    A Pennsylvania federal judge denied Wednesday a motion by drugmaker Zoetis Inc. for sanctions against the owners of a 3-year-old racehorse who say it died after being treated with one of the company's antibiotics, saying there's no indication that delays in responding to discovery were in bad faith, and by now the company has received all the relevant documents in the plaintiffs' possession.

  • September 04, 2024

    Whittaker Seeks $535M Deal In Talc Cases Tied To Berkshire

    Bankrupt talc supplier Whittaker Clark & Daniels Inc. asked a New Jersey bankruptcy court to approve a $535 million settlement that will resolve claims against companies including Berkshire Hathaway Inc., chemical distributor Brenntag and DB US Holding Corp.

  • September 04, 2024

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Blackbeard IP Fight, Firm Data Breach

    As summer winds down, the North Carolina Business Court tackled usage rights pertaining to footage and artifacts from Blackbeard's shipwreck while grappling with uncovering the details of a cyberattack that exposed the data of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP. In case you missed those and others, here are the highlights.

  • September 04, 2024

    Chamber Backs Gilead's Immunity In COVID Appeal

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a trade association representing drug companies have urged a Michigan state appeals court to rule that Gilead Sciences is immune from a claim that a recalled batch of COVID-19 medication caused a man to suffer two strokes.

  • September 04, 2024

    Glenmark Will Pay $25M To End Feds' Price-Fixing Suit

    Glenmark Pharmaceuticals USA will pay $25 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by conspiring to fix the price of a generic high cholesterol drug, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

  • September 04, 2024

    McCarter & English Rips Challenge To Malpractice Win In NJ

    McCarter & English LLP panned a pharmaceutical company's attempt to undo the firm's victory in a malpractice case last month, telling a New Jersey state court that issues the company raised in its motion to reconsider had "no impact" on the decision granting the firm a win.

  • September 04, 2024

    Trade Group Urges Court To Toss FDA Lab-Test Rule

    A clinical-lab trade group and an infectious disease laboratory that sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over its new final rule on laboratory-developed tests are asking a federal court to vacate it, saying Congress didn't grant the agency such power. 

  • September 04, 2024

    Ga. Justices Affirm Rejection Of Class In Patient Privacy Suit

    The Georgia Supreme Court said Wednesday that a Fulton County trial court acted within its discretion when it denied class certification for a suit over a release of patient records from a private mental health hospital, overturning a Georgia Court of Appeals ruling.

  • September 04, 2024

    J&J Hit With $1B Damages In Del. Merger Milestone Fight

    Johnson & Johnson owes more than $1 billion to a medical robotics developer and entrepreneur caught up in a multibillion-dollar post-acquisition dispute, a Delaware vice chancellor ruled Wednesday.

  • September 04, 2024

    Arnold & Porter Adds Mintz Healthcare Enforcement Leader

    After setting up shop in Boston a little less than a year ago, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP announced Tuesday that it was welcoming the co-chair of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC's healthcare enforcement defense group.

  • September 03, 2024

    Louisiana Frees Aurobindo, Sandoz From Price-Fixing Suits

    The state of Louisiana has dropped its remaining claims in three Connecticut-based lawsuits by a collection of state attorneys general against more than three dozen pharmaceutical companies alleging a generic drug price-fixing scheme, truncating assertions that accuse myriad drugmakers of Sherman Act violations.

  • September 03, 2024

    Teva Investors Get Go-Ahead To Resume Kickbacks Class Suit

    A shareholder's certified class action against pharmaceutical company Teva can resume after being paused for two years, as the company says it is working towards a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over related claims it used kickbacks to raise the price of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, a Philadelphia federal judge has decided.

  • September 03, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Mulls PTAB Ruling's Effect On Liquidia Drug Launch

    A Federal Circuit panel on Tuesday grappled with whether a Delaware judge was correct to hold that Liquidia Technologies could launch a hypertension drug after a United Therapeutics patent the company was found to infringe was held unpatentable by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • September 03, 2024

    Monsanto Keeps Trial Win In Missouri Roundup Cancer Suit

    A Missouri appeals panel on Tuesday let Monsanto Co. keep a trial court win in a suit by a man alleging he contracted non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma through exposure to glyphosate in the company's Roundup weed killer, finding the trial court rightly excluded one of his experts from testifying.

  • September 03, 2024

    HQ Specialty Looks To Fix Patent Flaws After Delaware Trial

    HQ Specialty Pharma Corp. said Tuesday that it will correct flaws in its patent for an injectable calcium supplement that led a federal jury in Delaware to find it partially invalid last week and then will seek a court order to stop generic-drug maker Fresenius Kabi USA LLC from selling its allegedly infringing product.

  • September 03, 2024

    Teva Patents Don't Belong In Orange Book, Fed. Circ. Told

    Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. is urging the Federal Circuit to preserve a lower court decision ejecting inhaler device patents from an important government database, arguing that the delisting, won in an infringement lawsuit from Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., properly separated out device patents from drug patents.

  • September 03, 2024

    Aesthetic Laser Co. Tells Jury Of Rival's 'Corporate Raid'

    Medical aesthetic business Cynosure told a Boston federal jury Tuesday that two former employees and an industry rival launched a "calculated corporate raid" by poaching dozens of sales and marketing personnel, violating a host of noncompete and non-solicitation agreements while the departing workers pocketed trade secrets on their way out the door.

  • September 03, 2024

    3rd Circ.: Biotech Must Pay Royalties Despite Expired Patents

    A cancer drug biotechnology company must pay royalties to a research firm despite the expiration of the applicable patents, a Third Circuit panel ruled in a precedential decision Tuesday, concluding that the biotech's royalty obligation is calculated differently than the one in a U.S. Supreme Court case it cited.

  • September 03, 2024

    Gov't Backs 9th Circ. Bid To Revive Invisalign Monopoly Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice has told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court applied the wrong standard when tossing a pair of class actions accusing the maker of Invisalign of monopolizing markets for clear dental aligners and teeth scanners.

  • September 03, 2024

    Aspire Biopharma Inks SPAC Deal At $316M Valuation

    Aspire Biopharma Inc., advised by Sichenzia Ross Ference Carmel LLP, on Tuesday announced that it will go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company PowerUp Acquisition Corp., led by Dykema Gossett PLLC, in a transaction that values the business at a pre-money equity value of roughly $316 million.

  • September 03, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week in Delaware's court of equity, an iconic rock band got a new member, former President Donald Trump's social media company escaped a contempt ruling, and litigation grew over Illumina Inc.'s $8 billion reacquisition of cancer-testing company Grail Inc. New cases touched on intellectual property, mergers, share transfers and dump trucks. In case you missed it, here's the latest from Delaware's Court of Chancery.

  • September 03, 2024

    Scientist Says Yale Medical School Ruined $28M 'Life's Work'

    An accounting issue at Yale School of Medicine caused a liquid nitrogen supply to become disconnected from an incubator that housed thousands of genetic materials comprising an employee's "life's work," destroying research funded by a total of $28 million in grants and private money, according to a lawsuit in Connecticut state court.

  • September 03, 2024

    Glenmark Hit With $50M Suit Over Potassium Pill Death

    A proposed class of buyers is suing Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. for more than $50 million, alleging that the company's extended-release potassium chloride capsules are defective and instead deliver the potassium too fast, which resulted in the death of the lead plaintiff's mother.

  • September 03, 2024

    Semnur Pharmaceuticals To Go Public Via $2.5B SPAC Merger

    Paul Hastings LLP-advised Semnur Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Tuesday unveiled plans to go public via a merger with Winston & Strawn LLP-led blank check company Denali Capital Acquisition Corp. in a deal that gives the pharmaceutical company a pre-transaction equity value of $2.5 billion.

  • September 03, 2024

    Hogan Lovells Tech Transactions Ace Returns To Weil In SF

    Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP is expanding its California team, announcing Tuesday it is welcoming back a technology transactions expert, most recently with Hogan Lovells, as a partner in its recently opened San Francisco office.

Expert Analysis

  • A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates

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    Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.

  • Critical Questions Remain After High Court's Abortion Rulings

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in two major abortion-related cases this term largely preserve the status quo for now, but leave federal preemption, the Comstock Act and in vitro fertilization in limbo, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • A Look At Acquisition Trends For Radiopharmaceuticals

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    As radiopharmaceutical drugs are increasingly used for the diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases, interest from Big Pharma entities is following suit, despite some questions around the drugs' capacity to expand beyond their limited niche, says Adrian Toutoungi at Taylor Wessing.

  • Opinion

    States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions

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    Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • Navigating FDA Supply Rule Leeway For Small Dispensers

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    As the November compliance deadline for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new pharmaceutical distribution supply chain rules draws closer, small dispensers should understand the narrow flexibilities that are available, and the questions to consider before taking advantage of them, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • 6 Lessons From DOJ's 1st Controlled Drug Case In Telehealth

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    Following the U.S. Department of Justice’s first-ever criminal prosecution over telehealth-prescribed controlled substances in U.S. v. Ruthia He, healthcare providers should be mindful of the risks associated with restricting the physician-patient relationship when crafting new business models, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Scale Tips Favor Away From HHS Agencies

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    The loss of Chevron deference may indirectly aid parties in challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' interpretations of regulations and could immediately influence several pending cases challenging HHS on technical questions and agency authority, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • 2 Options For Sackler Family After High Court Purdue Ruling

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked Purdue Pharma's plan to shield the family that owns the company from bankruptcy lawsuits, the Sacklers face the choice to either continue litigation, or return to the bargaining table for a settlement that doesn't eliminate creditor claims, says Gregory Germain at Syracuse University.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Limited Changes In USPTO Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference will have limited consequences for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office given the USPTO's unique statutory features, but it is still an important decision for matters of statutory interpretation, especially those involving provisions of the America Invents Act, say Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • Fed. Circ. Skinny Label Ruling Guides On Infringement Claims

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Amarin v. Hikma shows generic drug manufacturers must pay close attention to the statements in their abbreviated new drug application labels to put themselves in the best position in defending against an induced infringement claim, say Luke Shannon and Roshan Shrestha at Taft Stettinius.

  • 4 Takeaways From Biotech Patent Invalidity Ruling

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    The recent Patents Court decision in litigation between Advanced Cell Diagnostics and Molecular Instruments offers noteworthy commentary on issues related to experiments done in the ordinary course of business, joint importation, common general knowledge and mindset, and mosaicking for anticipation, say Nessa Khandaker and Darren Jiron at Finnegan.

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