Life Sciences

  • August 21, 2026

    Pharma Co. Loses Challenge To $3M Acne Drug Arb. Award

    A New York federal court confirmed an arbitrator's finding that Sun Pharmaceuticals breached an agreement with the owner of an acne drug by seeking regulatory approval to market a version of the drug in Canada, rejecting arguments that the arbitrator wrongly relied on extrinsic evidence.

  • August 21, 2026

    Hogan Lovells Helps Advance Gene Therapy For Rare Disease

    Hogan Lovells Cadwalader partner Blake Wilson found himself scrolling through LinkedIn one day, when a post caught his eye that would spark a multiyear pro bono effort and lead to a breakthrough treatment for a rare and fatal disorder affecting children.

  • August 21, 2026

    Astrid Investor Asks Chancery Court To Order Annual Meeting

    A director and major stockholder of Astrid Pharma Corp. has asked the Delaware Chancery Court to force the company to hold its 2026 annual meeting, saying it has gone years without giving stockholders the chance to elect directors.

  • August 21, 2026

    Bio-Techne Gives FTC More Time On $11.3B Merck Deal

    Life science tool company Bio-Techne has withdrawn and refiled its intent to merge with pharmaceutical giant Merck in an $11.3 billion deal in order to give the Federal Trade Commission more time to scrutinize the deal for competition concerns.

  • August 21, 2026

    Cook Medical Hit With Data Breach Class Suit

    A medical equipment manufacturer failed to protect employees' sensitive data from a cyberattack, potentially exposing their personal information to the dark web, a former employee alleged in a new proposed class action in Indiana federal court.

  • August 20, 2026

    Abbott Inks $670M Deal To End Some Preterm Formula Claims

    Abbott Laboratories announced Thursday that it has agreed to pay about $670 million to partially resolve ongoing litigation alleging its specialty baby formula caused premature babies to suffer a disabling intestinal condition.

  • August 20, 2026

    FTC Slams Amgen's Antitrust Shield Argument At 4th Circ.

    The Federal Trade Commission has urged the Fourth Circuit to reject Amgen's "sweeping" assertion that commercial agreements for acquiring the rights to patent applications are shielded from antitrust scrutiny, saying the company's position in an appeal related to blockbuster autoimmune drug Enbrel is a threat to longstanding understandings of antitrust law.

  • August 20, 2026

    J&J Talc Unit Loses Libel Suit Over Flawed Cancer Study

    A Virginia federal judge handed three doctors a win Wednesday in a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary's libel lawsuit over a 2020 study linking cosmetic talc exposure to mesothelioma, finding the subsidiary's evidence didn't show the trio knowingly or recklessly published falsehoods and instead merely revealed the doctors' "fear of litigation."

  • August 20, 2026

    SEC Won't Lift Trading Suspension On Chinese Biotech Firm

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has upheld Nasdaq's decision to delist the stock of Shineco Inc. after the Chinese biotech firm repeatedly violated the exchange's listing requirements, rejecting the company's arguments that a Nasdaq hearing panel reached its decision too quickly and did not properly consider plans for new operations at Shineco.

  • August 20, 2026

    USPTO Tells Fed. Circ. 'Settled Expectations' Is Constitutional

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has urged the Federal Circuit to reject Google's constitutional challenge to the office's "settled expectations" policy of taking the age of patents into account when deciding whether to review them, saying the rule is "eminently rational."

  • August 20, 2026

    Canadian Bioscience Cos. Settle 'Fake' Fuel Trading Suit

    A Colorado state judge agreed to issue a stay and administratively close a case brought by two Canadian bioscience companies alleging that a Denver resident defrauded them out of nearly $1 million through "fake" fuel trading deals, amid an undisclosed agreement reached between the parties.

  • August 20, 2026

    Latest Squires Order Grants 2 Patent Petitions, Denies None

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has issued a brief bulk order instituting a pair of America Invents Act petitions, including a Google challenge to a Valtrus Innovations patent, and saying he would assess the merits of four other patent challenges.

  • August 20, 2026

    Amgen Reaches Deal To End Ex-Worker's Tobacco Fee Fight

    Biotech giant Amgen Inc. struck a deal to end a proposed class action alleging a $150-a-month fee on the health plans of employees who used tobacco violated federal benefits law, according to a filing in California federal court Thursday.

  • August 20, 2026

    Sangamo Ch. 11 Auction Nets $238M In Offers

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge Thursday agreed to approve a trio of sales that will bring in $52 million in cash for Sangamo Therapeutics, after attorneys representing the life sciences group told the court a competitive Chapter 11 auction ended with four winning bids worth over $238 million.

  • August 20, 2026

    Eagle Pharma $9.5M Investor Deal Gets Final OK

    A $9.5 million settlement resolving claims that Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its former executives carried out a fraudulent "channel stuffing" scheme to inflate the revenue of one of the company's brand-name medications has received the final stamp of approval from a New Jersey federal magistrate judge.

  • August 20, 2026

    Dentons Hires Longtime K&L Gates Healthcare Lawyer

    Dentons has hired a K&L Gates LLP healthcare partner and office managing partner who spent more than 17 years at that firm advising pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and other life sciences clients on regulatory, compliance and transactional matters.

  • August 19, 2026

    NYC's DNA Policies Led To Fabricated Evidence, Suit Says

    A man who was wrongfully convicted of raping a woman claims he was framed by the New York City medical examiner's office, alleging in a federal lawsuit Wednesday that the agency's unconstitutional protocols led forensic analysts to generate fabricated DNA evidence that misled the prosecution and jury.

  • August 19, 2026

    5th Circ. Tells FDA To 'Rethink' Rule Behind E-Cig Rejection

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday agreed with vaping companies that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration overstepped its authority when it repeatedly blocked approval of flavored e-cigarettes without a notice-and-comment period, holding that the repeated denials constitute a rule that the agency must "rethink" or readopt properly.

  • August 19, 2026

    Abbott Deal Ends Appeal After $495M Baby Formula Trial Loss

    Abbott Laboratories Inc. has struck a deal with a family that won a $495 million judgment against the U.S. pharmaceutical company in a bellwether trial over claims that its baby formula caused a premature baby to suffer a disabling condition, after a midlevel appellate court upheld the win, according to court filings.

  • August 19, 2026

    1st Circ. Says Apellis Disclosures Weren't 'Half-Truths'

    A First Circuit panel on Wednesday affirmed the dismissal of a securities fraud lawsuit accusing Apellis Pharmaceuticals and some of its top executives of misleading investors about the safety testing of the company's eye drug Syfovre, finding no actionable claim the company told "half-truths" about potential side effects of inflammation that can lead to blindness. 

  • August 19, 2026

    Albertsons Says Wash. Failed To Prove Opioid Claims At Trial

    Albertsons Cos. Inc. urged a Seattle judge on Tuesday to throw out Washington state's lawsuit accusing the chain and its subsidiary Safeway Inc. of fueling Washington's opioid crisis, arguing that the state failed to prove wrongdoing by the companies after nearly five weeks of an ongoing bench trial.

  • August 19, 2026

    Double Patenting Ripe For Fresh Fed. Circ. Look Amid Debate

    The already complex doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting may now be more tangled following a decision and a brief from the patent office seemingly taking different views on a key issue, but that could set the stage for the Federal Circuit to provide clarity, attorneys say.

  • August 19, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB's Ax Of 10x Genomics Patent Claims

    The Federal Circuit declined Wednesday to save claims in a trio of 10x Genomics patents covering nucleic acid analysis methods, affirming decisions from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that sided with Parse Biosciences Inc.'s obviousness challenges to the claims.

  • August 19, 2026

    FTC Asks Court To Keep Trans Health Suit In Texas

    The Federal Trade Commission has asked a Texas federal court to keep its suit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health in the Lone Star State, saying that the organization incorporated there in 1980.

  • August 19, 2026

    Pro-Business Foundation Backs J&J's Stelara Antitrust Win

    Insurer CareFirst's bid to revive an antitrust lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson over its acquisition of patents affecting competitors would throw cold water over drug company mergers, burden government regulators and strip the issue of intent out of antitrust enforcement, according to an amicus brief filed by the Washington Legal Foundation.

Expert Analysis

  • FDA Moves Leave Peptides In A Legal Gray Zone

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    While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taken a concrete step forward on reclassifying certain peptides, the practical consequence of their interim status cannot be overstated — these substances are no longer designated as posing a significant safety risk, but they have not been affirmatively authorized for compounding, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • How Reincorporating In Texas May Alter Earnout Disputes

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    While the DExit debate has focused on shareholder suits, far less attention has been paid to what reincorporating in Texas means for M&A disputes, making it particularly important to understand the nuances between Delaware and Texas earnout jurisprudence, say attorneys at Selendy Gay.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • Coordinating Life Sciences IP Strategies In The US And EU

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    As postgrant practice for life sciences patents is restructured in the U.S. and European Union simultaneously, patent owners will need to implement transatlantic coordination that treats international proceedings as components of a single intellectual property risk architecture, says Paul Calvo at Sterne Kessler.

  • What Durnell Ruling Means For Mo. Roundup Settlement

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Monsanto v. Durnell forecloses the failure-to-warn theory that carried most of the claims against Monsanto in a pending class action in Missouri state court, it leaves untouched the question of whether the class was assembled merely to contain the defendant's liability, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • Why Biotech Cos. Need Litigation Plans Before Bad News

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    Biotech companies should take proactive steps to respond to the growing trend of securities litigation filed against them, due to the inherently uncertain nature of their business models and heightened scrutiny of clinical trial disclosures, regulatory communications and investor-facing statements, says Wesley Horton at FBFK.

  • 10 Years, 150 Cases: The Rise And Fall Of Post-Halo Damages

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Halo v. Pulse in 2016, patent practitioners predicted that enhanced damages would become easier to win, but analysis of every contested district court ruling on a motion for enhanced damages in the last 10 years shows that courts have shown increasing restraint, say attorneys at Reichman Jorgensen.

  • Legal Risks Of Using AI To Screen Psychedelic Trial Patients

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    Though using artificial intelligence to preemptively identify drug trial participants likely to experience placebo effects could produce clearer research results, sponsors will need to be ready for the new legal questions these methods raise about informed consent, accountability for algorithmically derived criteria, and potential bias in data training sets, says Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell.

  • After Durnell, Connecting Science And Causation Will Be Key

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's June 25 decision in Monsanto v. Durnell narrowed label-based failure-to-warn claims — meaning that going forward, viable theories will depend even more on whether experts can reliably connect scientific evidence to the causal proposition the law requires, says Alex Smolak at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar.

  • Series

    Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

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    As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

  • The Case For Using Final-Offer Damages Forms In IP Suits

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    Recent Federal Circuit decisions, such as Ollnova v. Ecobee, that scrutinize verdict forms in patent infringement disputes potentially render the final-offer damages selection procedure more attractive, though it should not be seen as a replacement for patent damages doctrine, says Brandon Theiss at Addy Hart.

  • Key Tips For Patenting Antibody-Drug Conjugate Inventions

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    Recent decisions highlight the significant challenges that can arise when patenting antibody-drug conjugates, which require strategic considerations for satisfying heightened written description and enablement requirements, says Xiaoban Xin at FisherBroyles.

  • $885M IBS Drug Verdict Tests Pay-For-Delay Limits

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    The outcome in the Amitiza Antitrust Litigation is significant because it is the first jury trial win for private antitrust plaintiffs in a suit challenging a patent settlement reverse payment since the U.S. Supreme Court adopted the rule-of-reason legal framework in 2013, offering a blueprint for pay-for-delay claims, say attorneys at Katten.

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