Life Sciences

  • April 05, 2024

    Mich. Plaintiffs Bar Prepares For Growth After Policy Shifts

    After decades of the deck stacked against them, Michigan's plaintiffs attorneys are poised to take advantage of a more hospitable environment for personal injury cases and pharmaceutical class actions, though experts caution the learning curve will be steep.

  • April 05, 2024

    Publix Wants Ga. High Court Input On Opioid Public Nuisance

    Grocery chain Publix has asked the Ohio federal court overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation to send questions to Georgia's high court about whether that state's law allows public nuisance claims over a healthcare provider's dispensing of prescription narcotics.

  • April 05, 2024

    Jury Finds Pharma Exec 'Shadow Traded' With Inside Info

    A California federal jury found Friday that a former Medivation executive is liable for using inside information from his company when he purchased stock in rival pharmaceutical maker Incyte, in a novel civil "shadow trading" case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • April 05, 2024

    New Chancery Challenge Launched To Board-Investor Pacts

    A biopharmaceutical company stockholder has teed up a new Delaware Chancery Court suit challenging board-investor voting agreements, with the complaint acknowledging wide debate over the pacts and a fast-moving push to amend state corporation law to authorize them.

  • April 05, 2024

    Mo. High Court Affirms Co.'s Medical Pot License Denial

    The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the denial of a company's application for a medical marijuana cultivation facility license, finding that its submission missed the mark by not including a certificate of good standing from the secretary of state.

  • April 05, 2024

    Gunderson, Sidley Steer Biotech's Scaled-Down $110M IPO

    San Diego, California-based biotech Contineum Therapeutics began trading its shares publicly on Friday after raising $110 million in its scaled-down initial public offering.

  • April 05, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen the BBC sued by former Georgian defense minister David Kezerashvili, Russian businessman Ildar Sharipov file a defamation claim against the publisher of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, MEX Group Worldwide sue Barclays and NatWest, and a climbing gear company hit retailer Next with a claim of copyright infringement. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • April 05, 2024

    Freshfields Reps J&J On $13.1B Deal For Shockwave Medical

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer-led Johnson & Johnson has agreed to buy Fenwick & West-advised Shockwave Medical Inc., a provider of a cardiovascular blood flow treatment, at an enterprise value of $13.1 billion, the companies said Friday. 

  • April 04, 2024

    SEC Points Jury To 'Coincidence' In Shadow Trading Trial

    A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney on Thursday cross-examined a former executive of pharmaceutical company Medivation about his alleged "shadow trading" in the stock of rival pharma company Incyte, pressing the executive repeatedly to assert that various facts and circumstances supporting the agency's position were merely "coincidence."

  • April 04, 2024

    Tribes And McKinsey Take Final Step In $39.5M Opioid Deal

    A California judge signed off Thursday on the completion of a $39.5 million nationwide settlement deal that resolves all opioids litigation brought by federally recognized tribes against McKinsey & Co.

  • April 04, 2024

    NY AG Asked To Weigh In On Multiple Sclerosis Drug Fight

    The Federal Circuit is asking New York Attorney General Letitia James to weigh in on a patent dispute over a multiple sclerosis drug after it emerged that Acorda Therapeutics' challenge to an underlying arbitral award raises questions about the constitutionality of New York's voluntary payment doctrine.

  • April 04, 2024

    Latham Led Firms In 1st Quarter IPOs As Outlook Brightens

    Latham & Watkins LLP guided the most initial public offerings among law firms in the year's first quarter, benefiting from an improved fundraising climate that is spreading optimism for IPO lawyers at many firms as the second quarter unfolds.

  • April 04, 2024

    Microsoft Unit Gets Fed. Circ. Alice Win On Imaging Patents

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday gave a win to a software company acquired by Microsoft for nearly $20 billion, affirming a decision that claims in four medical imaging patents it was accused of infringing are invalid for claiming only an abstract idea.

  • April 04, 2024

    Novo Holdings, Catalent Reset Review Clock On $16.5B Deal

    Novo Nordisk Foundation has given the Federal Trade Commission more time for an initial review of Novo Holdings' plan to acquire Catalent in a deal that values the pharmaceutical services company at $16.5 billion.

  • April 04, 2024

    Structure Defense Remains In FTC Hospital Case, But Not Hearing

    When the Federal Trade Commission goes to trial April 29 against an allegedly anti-competitive hospital merger, the agency won't have to contend with defense assertions that its structure is unconstitutional right away, but a North Carolina federal judge refused Thursday to scrub them entirely.

  • April 04, 2024

    Nurses Want To Merge DaVita Wage Suits Over Unpaid Breaks

    Workers suing kidney care giant DaVita Inc. have asked a Colorado federal judge to consolidate two similar collective actions alleging they were denied wages for work performed during meal and rest breaks, saying overlap between the cases is "inevitable."

  • April 04, 2024

    Higher Ed Groups Warn Of 'Radical Shift' In Suicide Liability

    Four colleges and a slew of higher education advocacy groups have urged the Eleventh Circuit to reject an argument that Atlanta's Emory University should be liable for the suicide of a student, warning that a ruling against the school could bring about a "radical shift" in the university-student relationship.

  • April 04, 2024

    UK Billionaire Lewis Avoids Prison For Insider Trading

    A New York federal judge on Thursday sentenced British billionaire Joe Lewis to three years of probation for feeding his girlfriend and private-jet pilots nonpublic stock tips about his private equity firm's portfolio companies, saying a prison term would put the 87-year-old at "serious risk" of death.

  • April 04, 2024

    Squire Patton Adds Polsinelli Enviro Atty Pair In Denver

    Squire Patton Boggs LLP announced Thursday that it had added two former Polsinelli PC attorneys to its global environmental, safety and health practice.

  • April 04, 2024

    Boston Scientific's $3.7B Axonics Buy Under FTC Microscope

    Biomedical engineering company Boston Scientific Corp. on Thursday disclosed that the Federal Trade Commission requested more information on its planned $3.7 billion acquisition of medical technology company Axonics, which will result in a delay in the deal's closing.

  • April 04, 2024

    Kirkland-Led SK Capital Raises $2.95B For 6th PE Fund

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised private equity shop SK Capital Partners LP announced Thursday that it closed the latest vintage of its flagship private investment strategy after securing $2.95 billion of capital commitments.

  • April 03, 2024

    Sanofi Plans To Settle 4,000 Zantac Cancer Claims

    Sanofi said Wednesday that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle about 4,000 personal injury claims linking the discontinued heartburn drug Zantac to cancer.

  • April 03, 2024

    Accused 'Shadow Trader' Takes Stand To Slam SEC's Case

    A former Medivation executive accused of "shadow trading" when he purchased stock in rival Incyte testified in his California federal civil trial Wednesday that he didn't base that decision on confidential information, and he didn't think even "for one second" that he was violating securities laws.

  • April 03, 2024

    Microsoft Notches Fed. Circ. Win In 3D Imaging Patent Fight

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday backed a ruling from an administrative tribunal that wiped out most of a patent issued to a Florida radiologist and his ex-Lockheed Martin business partner, whose company is suing Microsoft over its line of HoloLens AR headsets.

  • April 03, 2024

    UK Billionaire Lewis Agrees To $1.64M Insider Trading Penalty

    British billionaire Joseph Lewis has agreed to pay $1.64 million to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's civil claims he fed confidential tips to his personal pilots and then-girlfriend after pleading guilty to related criminal charges earlier this year.

Expert Analysis

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    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

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    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.

  • FTC Orange Book Move Signals New Pharma Patent Scrutiny

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent dispute against improper listing of drug patents in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book indicates heightened surveillance of the pharmaceutical industry, particularly where competition-related consequences of patent or regulatory processes are concerned, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • How Legal Teams Can Prep For Life Sciences' Tech Revolution

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    The life sciences and health care industries are uniquely positioned to take advantage of new efficiencies created by cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence, but the sensitivity of their data also demands careful navigation of an expanding legislative and regulatory landscape, say Kristi Gedid, Zack Laplante and Lisa LaMotta at Ernst & Young.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: South Korea

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    Numerous ESG trends have materialized in South Korea in the past three years, with impacts ranging from greenwashing prevention and carbon neutrality measures to workplace harassment and board diversity initiatives, say Chang Wook Min and Hyun Chan Jung at Jipyong.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Administrative Procedure

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    A pair of recent Federal Circuit rulings on Patent Trial and Appeal Board inter partes review shed light on applications of the Administrative Procedure Act, adding to an ever-growing body of case law showing the board's final written decision must be based on arguments clearly put forth by the parties, say Robert High and Benjamin Saidman at Finnegan.

  • Rite Aid's Reasons For Ch. 11 Go Beyond Opioid Suits

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    Despite opioid-related lawsuits being the perceived reason that pushed Rite Aid into bankruptcy, the company's recent Chapter 11 filing reveals its tenuous position in the pharmaceutical retail market, and only time will tell whether bankruptcy will right-size the company, says Daniel Gielchinsky at DGIM Law.

  • Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.

  • FDA's Lab-Developed Test Rule May Bring Historic Challenges

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    If finalized, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposed rule for regulating laboratory-developed tests will provoke some of the most interesting legal challenges that the agency has faced in decades, with outcomes that will likely reverberate across the agency's product centers, says Stacy Amin at MoFo.

  • Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD

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    Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • A Look At DOJ's New Nationwide Investment Fraud Approach

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    Investment fraud charges are increasingly being brought in unlikely venues across the country, and the rationale behind the U.S. Department of Justice's approach could well be the heightened legal standards in connection with prosecuting investment fraud, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Earnout Contract Considerations After NC Good Faith Ruling

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    The North Carolina Supreme Court's recent Value Health Solutions v. Pharmaceutical Research decision, holding the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing did not apply in an earnout dispute related to an asset sale, demonstrates the need for practitioners to pay careful attention to milestone concepts in M&A transactions, says Benjamin Hicks at Wagner Hicks.

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