Life Sciences

  • March 21, 2024

    Colo. Distributor Seeks $2.3M Sanction For Stryker Spoilation

    A Colorado medical device distributor urged a federal judge to make Stryker and its lawyers pay $2.3 million in attorney fees as sanctions for "pervasive misconduct" throughout discovery and trial, arguing discovery violations will otherwise become the "cost of doing business" for the medical technology giant.

  • March 21, 2024

    Schumer Urges Texas District To Adopt Judge-Shopping Rule

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday urged the chief judge of the Northern District of Texas to quickly implement the Judicial Conference of the United States' updated policy that looks to prevent litigants from judge shopping, arguing that the district's current practices are "dangerous."

  • March 21, 2024

    Ill. Judge Leaves Outcome Health Execs' Convictions Intact

    An Illinois federal judge said Thursday that he wouldn't disturb three former Outcome Health executives' convictions for carrying out a massive billion-dollar fraud scheme to grow their health advertising business, saying the jury heard enough evidence to support its verdict.

  • March 21, 2024

    MDL Claims Over Merck's Gardasil Vax Get Trimmed

    Pharmaceutical giant Merck need not face many of the claims by patients who allege their autoimmune conditions were caused by its HPV vaccine, a North Carolina federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation ruled, saying the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act bars most claims made in the first two bellwethers.

  • March 21, 2024

    6th Circ. Revives McKee's Network Plan Fight With Thrifty Med

    The Sixth Circuit reinstated on Thursday McKee Foods Corp.'s suit against Thrifty MedPlus Pharmacy alleging Tennessee law requiring pharmacy benefit managers to let "any willing pharmacies" participate in a network was preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, finding that amendments made to the statute didn't render McKee's claims moot.

  • March 21, 2024

    Calif. Panel Revives Diner's COVID Sanitization Coverage Bid

    A California state appeals court revived a diner's bid for property insurance coverage of COVID-19 losses after it determined the restaurant credibly alleged direct physical losses and that the policy's language covering losses attributable to a virus applied to COVID-19 sanitization efforts.

  • March 21, 2024

    Tribe's Opioid Suit Can Head To State Court, Okla. Judge Says

    An Oklahoma federal magistrate judge has granted the Cherokee Nation's bid to move to state court its suit accusing pharmaceuticals distributor Morris & Dickson of flooding the tribe's communities with opioids, saying the company only fulfilled one of four prongs necessary for establishing federal jurisdiction.

  • March 21, 2024

    CymaBay Investor Sues For Books On $4.3B Gilead Merger

    A shareholder of liver disease-focused biopharmaceutical company CymaBay Therapeutics Inc. sued the company in Delaware Chancery Court to extract more information over a proposed $4.3 billion merger with Gilead Sciences Inc., saying CymaBay has refused to hand over previously requested documents regarding the valuation analyses without a legitimate excuse.

  • March 21, 2024

    Avoid Major Extension Of Merger Reach, EU High Court Urged

    An important tool for extending European Union antitrust officials' merger scrutiny appears to be in jeopardy after a European Court of Justice advocate general effectively recommended Thursday that the bloc's high court restrict the ability to investigate transactions that don't normally trigger EU thresholds.

  • March 21, 2024

    Business Coalition Rebuffs Biden Plan To Seize Drug Patents

    The Biden administration's proposal to exercise so-called march-in rights to seize drug patents would harm innovation in the U.S., according to an assemblage of business-focused groups.

  • March 21, 2024

    Home Health Cos. Stiffed Workers On OT Pay, Suit Claims

    The operators of several Ohio-based home care staffing agencies have been failing to pay their employees for all the overtime hours they worked, according to a recent proposed class and collective action.

  • March 21, 2024

    Teleflex Catheter Patent Makes It Through Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday opted to leave untouched an administrative patent board ruling that rejected a legal effort to invalidate a patent covering a type of catheter that's sold by Teleflex. 

  • March 21, 2024

    Woman Lost Independence Due To Strattice Mesh, Jurors Told

    A Kentucky woman told New Jersey state jurors on Thursday that LifeCell skipped important safety steps while designing its Strattice surgical mesh, and that those skipped steps caused a hernia to reoccur and ultimately resulted in the loss of her independence.

  • March 21, 2024

    3rd Circ. Agrees Investors Have No Case Against Vax Maker

    The Third Circuit on Thursday upheld a Pennsylvania federal judge's ruling that a putative class of investors alleging biopharmaceutical company Ocugen Inc. made misleading statements about its ability to quickly produce a COVID-19 vaccine failed to state a claim against the company.

  • March 21, 2024

    6th Circ. Doubtful Of Hospital Workers' Vax Exemption Claim

    A Sixth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Thursday of an argument from a class of former employees of Ohio Children's Hospital that their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion were violated under the hospital's COVID-19 employee vaccination policy.

  • March 21, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Edwards' PTAB Win On Heart Valve Patent

    The Federal Circuit has affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that various parts of medical technology maker Cardiovalve's patent on an artificial heart valve implant were invalid as obvious.

  • March 21, 2024

    6th Circ. Zeroes In On CBA In Vax Bias Preemption Battle

    A Sixth Circuit panel pressed on Thursday a cargo airline and pilots who say they were unlawfully fired for refusing COVID-19 vaccinations about the pilots' union contract, with one judge asking whether the open questions about their collective bargaining agreement meant the discrimination case was preempted.

  • March 21, 2024

    Chancery Denies Icahn Midcase Appeal In Illumina Board Suit

    Carl Icahn can't interrupt his Chancery Court lawsuit against biotech Illumina Inc.'s board to appeal a decision about redactions to the Delaware Supreme Court, a vice chancellor ruled Wednesday, saying there are no "exceptional circumstances" that call for a midcase review.

  • March 21, 2024

    Greenberg Traurig Adds Jackson Walker FDA Pro In Houston

    Greenberg Traurig LLP's most recent Houston addition is a shareholder who came aboard from Jackson Walker LLP, where he established and led its U.S. Food and Drug Administration practice.

  • March 20, 2024

    4th Circ. Backs Rockefeller Group in Guatemalans' Syphilis Suit

    A group of Guatemalans who sued The Rockefeller Foundation over venereal disease experiments conducted on prisoners and psychiatric patients in the 1940s did not show an American doctor involved in the gruesome activities acted on behalf of the organization, a Fourth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday.

  • March 20, 2024

    Endo Plan To Trim $5B In Debt Confirmed By NY Judge

    Drugmaker Endo International got a New York bankruptcy judge's approval for its Chapter 11 plan that aims to cut more than $5 billion in debt and hand over ownership to its lenders, roughly a month after it finalized a $465 million deal to resolve criminal and civil opioid claims.

  • March 20, 2024

    PTAB To Analyze Moderna COVID Vaccine Patents

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has agreed to review two Moderna COVID-19 vaccine patents challenged by rivals Pfizer and BioNTech as having "unimaginably broad claims directed to a basic idea that was known long before."

  • March 20, 2024

    Jenner & Block-Led Lonza To Buy Roche's $1.2B US Facility

    Swiss healthcare company Lonza said on Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire one of the largest medicine manufacturing facilities in the world from biotech giant Roche for $1.2 billion to increase its manufacturing capacity.

  • March 20, 2024

    Digital Comms Filings Bolster Record EPO Applications

    Companies and inventors filed the highest number of European patent applications to date in 2023, buoyed by marked increases in filings for digital communications and energy technologies.

  • March 20, 2024

    Int'l Olympic Committee Rips Russia For Politicizing Sports

    The International Olympic Committee has slammed Russia's newly created "Friendship Games" as a cynical ploy to politicize sports, saying that the Russian government's plan to host its own summer and winter games runs contrary to resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly.

Expert Analysis

  • What Lawyers Must Know About Calif. State Bar's AI Guidance

    Author Photo

    Initial recommendations from the State Bar of California regarding use of generative artificial intelligence by lawyers have the potential to become a useful set of guidelines in the industry, covering confidentiality, supervision and training, communications, discrimination and more, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Industry Must Elevate Native American Women Attys' Stories

    Author Photo

    The American Bar Association's recent research study into Native American women attorneys' experiences in the legal industry reveals the glacial pace of progress, and should inform efforts to amplify Native voices in the field, says Mary Smith, president of the ABA.

  • The Fed. Circ. In Nov.: Factual Support And Appellate Standing

    The Federal Circuit's recent Allgenesis Biotherapeutics v. Cloud Break Therapeutics decision shows that appellate standing requires specific factual support, underscoring the necessary requirements for a patent challenger in an appeal from an inter partes review at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, say Jeremiah Helm and Sean Murray at Knobbe Martens.

  • White House Activity Is A Band-Aid For Regulating AI In Health

    Author Photo

    In the medium term, recent White House actions will have a greater impact on AI in the health care industry than Congress' sluggish efforts to regulate it, but ultimately legislation of AI's development and use in the health space will fall to Congress, say Wendell Bartnick and Vanessa Perumal at Reed Smith.

  • Understanding Discovery Obligations In Era Of Generative AI

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
    Author Photo

    Attorneys and businesses must adapt to the unique discovery challenges presented by generative artificial intelligence, such as chatbot content and prompts, while upholding the principles of fairness, transparency and compliance with legal obligations in federal civil litigation, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • Kochava Ruling May Hint At Next Privacy Class Action Wave

    Author Photo

    The Southern District of California's recent ruling in Greenley v. Kochava and increasing complaints alleging that a consumer website is an illegal “pen register” due to the use of third-party marketing software tools foreshadow a new theory of liability for plaintiffs in privacy litigation, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Forecasting The Impact Of High Court Debit Card Rule Case

    Author Photo

    John Delionado and Aidan Gross at Hunton consider how the U.S. Supreme Court's forthcoming ruling in a retailer's suit challenging a Federal Reserve rule on debit card swipe fees could affect agency regulations both new and old, as well as the businesses that might seek to challenge them.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: Mexico

    Author Photo

    ESG has yet to become part of the DNA of the Mexican business model, but huge strides are being made in that direction, as more stakeholders demand that companies adopt, at the least, a modicum of sustainability commitments and demonstrate how they will meet them, says Carlos Escoto at Galicia Abogados.

  • Opinion

    FDA And Companies Must Move Quickly On Drug Recalls

    Author Photo

    When a drug doesn't work as promised — whether it causes harm, like eyedrops recalled last month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or is merely useless, like a widely used decongestant ingredient recently acknowledged by the agency to be ineffective — the public must be notified in a timely manner, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.

  • The Case For Post-Bar Clerk Training Programs At Law Firms

    Author Photo

    In today's competitive legal hiring market, an intentionally designed training program for law school graduates awaiting bar admission can be an effective way of creating a pipeline of qualified candidates, says Brent Daub at Gilson Daub.

  • Opinion

    A Telecom Attorney's Defense Of The Chevron Doctrine

    Author Photo

    The Chevron doctrine, which requires judicial deference to federal regulators, is under attack in two U.S. Supreme Court cases — and while most telecom attorneys likely agree that the Federal Communications Commission is guilty of overrelying on it, the problem is not the doctrine itself, says Carl Northrop at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • What's At Stake In Bystolic 'Side Deals' Litigation

    Author Photo

    In re: Bystolic Antitrust Litigation, which has oral argument set for next month, will likely shed light on how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit views side deals, and could create a circuit split in pleading standards for reverse payment cases, say attorneys at Axinn.

  • 2 HHS Warnings Highlight Anti-Kickback Risks For Physicians

    Author Photo

    Two recent advisory opinions issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General involve different scenarios and rationales, but together they illustrate the OIG's focus on and disapproval of contractual joint ventures and other revenue-maximizing physician arrangements, say Robert Threlkeld and Elliott Coward at Morris Manning.

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

    Author Photo

    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Cross-Market Implications In FTC's Anesthesia Complaint

    Author Photo

    The Federal Trade Commission's recent complaint against a private equity firm's acquisition of anesthesiology practices highlights the controversial issue of cross-market harm in health care provider mergers, and could provide important insights into how a court may view such theories of harm, say Christopher Lau and Dina Older Aguilar at Cornerstone Research.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Life Sciences archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!