Life Sciences

  • July 23, 2026

    AstraZeneca Immune In Vax Trial Contract Suit, 10th Circ. Says

    The Tenth Circuit on Thursday overturned a lower court ruling that AstraZeneca lacked immunity from an experimental COVID-19 vaccine trial participant's lawsuit seeking medical compensation after she suffered debilitating injuries, saying a federal statute providing immunity for vaccine developers covers her contract breach claims.

  • July 23, 2026

    Abbott Labs Accused Of Lax Security Over Shinyhunters Hack

    Abbott Laboratories and Exact Sciences were hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court Wednesday over a cyberattack carried out by a notorious ransomware gang known as "Shinyhunters" that absconded with patients' medical records, which the suit says is far more harmful than standard identity theft.

  • July 23, 2026

    Mo. Panel Says Exclusion Bars Mallinckrodt Opioid Coverage

    A Missouri appellate court upheld a win for a group of insurers on their arguments that a "your products" policy exclusion applied to bar coverage of alleged damages from drugmaker Mallinckrodt's unbranded marketing of opioid products.

  • July 23, 2026

    Kirkland, Sullivan & Cromwell Steer $2B ArisGlobal Deal

    Dassault Systèmes has agreed to acquire ArisGlobal, an AI-driven software provider for the life sciences industry, from private equity firm Nordic Capital for up to $2 billion, the companies said Thursday.

  • July 23, 2026

    Philly Judge Says Keller Postman Slowing Zantac Litigation

    A Pennsylvania state court judge has said Keller Postman LLC's "crusade" to remove him from presiding over several matters has ground to a halt the Zantac cancer mass tort in Philadelphia, leaving the plaintiffs' cases to "languish."

  • July 23, 2026

    J&J's Delays Should End $25M Asbestos Appeal, Builder Says

    A western Massachusetts real estate developer has asked a Connecticut appeals court to toss Johnson & Johnson's appeal of a $25 million asbestos cancer verdict in his favor, saying the company has yet to file an opening brief despite receiving five deadline extensions.

  • July 22, 2026

    J&J Talc Plaintiffs Must Back Up Cancer Link Or Risk MDL

    Plaintiffs alleging Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer must show they can offer expert opinions on the link between the disease and talc use or risk having their lawsuits tossed, a New Jersey federal judge ruled Wednesday.

  • July 22, 2026

    Late Emails Undercut BCBS Pricing Suit, Walgreens Says

    Walgreen Co. is urging an Illinois federal judge to again sanction a Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer and its subsidiary for allegedly failing to produce key email evidence the pharmacy retailer says "upends" the insurers' 6-year-old claim that it intentionally overcharged them for prescription drugs.

  • July 22, 2026

    Organ Network, Hospital Sued Over Racial Kidney Criteria

    A kidney disease patient launched a proposed class action in Washington federal court Tuesday accusing the United Network for Organ Sharing and Seattle hospital operator Swedish Health Services of using a flawed race-based adjustment when scoring kidney functioning, hindering Black patients' chances of getting a transplant for years.

  • July 22, 2026

    TransMedics Sheds Some Claims In Organ Transfer Biz Suit

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday significantly trimmed a proposed shareholder class action alleging that medical technology company TransMedics Inc. and its top brass made misleading statements about the success and cost-effectiveness of its organ donation products and services.

  • July 22, 2026

    Boston Scientific Settles With Stryker In Spine Device IP Fight

    Boston Scientific and Stryker Corp. have reached a settlement to resolve a case in New Jersey federal court over Stryker's alleged efforts to create a back pain device that infringed a Boston Scientific patent.

  • July 22, 2026

    Safety-Net Clinics Defend Insulin Suit Revival To Justices

    Safety-net healthcare providers urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to take on the revival of their proposed antitrust class action against Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and AstraZeneca, arguing Wednesday that the Second Circuit's decision was based on neither mere trade group lobbying nor any kind of overcharge.

  • July 22, 2026

    Candid Health Wraps $120M Series D Funding Round

    Autonomous revenue cycle management platform Candid Health, advised by Lowenstein Sandler LLP, on Wednesday revealed that it raised $120 million in its latest funding round, marking a three-times increase in valuation over the San Francisco-based company's previous funding round in February 2025.

  • July 22, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Panel Stands By Invalidated Spinal Fusion IP

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday said it won't rethink a panel's decision invalidating patent claims covering parts used to make expandable implant devices in spinal fusion surgeries that were the basis of a $9.5 million jury verdict against Life Spine Inc.

  • July 22, 2026

    2 Charged In Alleged $52.7M COVID-19 Tax Scheme

    Two men have been indicted in Pennsylvania on allegations that they participated in a multistate conspiracy to bilk the government out of $52.7 million in a COVID-19-related false tax return scheme, according to federal prosecutors.

  • July 22, 2026

    Squires Grants 4 IPRs, Issues No Discretionary Denials

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has granted four more petitions for inter partes review, bringing his institution rate to just shy of 30%.

  • July 22, 2026

    Goodwin, K&L Gates Steer $1.5B Repligen Gene Therapy Deal

    Repligen said Wednesday it will acquire BioLife Solutions in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at about $1.5 billion, expanding its presence in the fast-growing cell and gene therapy market, with Goodwin Procter LLP advising Repligen and K&L Gates LLP representing BioLife.

  • July 22, 2026

    Judge Skeptical Of Harm From Chinese Military Co. Label

    A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday appeared skeptical of a Chinese pharmaceutical company's claims that it has suffered irreparable damage from the U.S. Department of Defense's recommendation that it be designated a "Chinese military company."

  • July 22, 2026

    Gene Therapy Co. Inks Better Ch. 11 Financing Deal

    Sangamo Therapeutics on Wednesday told a Delaware bankruptcy judge it has negotiated new Chapter 11 financing that will provide the biotechnology company with more money at a lower interest rate and asked permission to take out the new loan.

  • July 22, 2026

    DOL Takes Swipe At Derisking Cases In Bristol-Myers Brief

    The U.S. Department of Labor urged the Second Circuit to shut down a suit claiming drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb violated federal benefits law by offloading $2.6 billion in pension liabilities to a risky annuity provider, saying benefit plans stand to suffer if courts greenlight flimsy claims of injury.

  • July 22, 2026

    Trump Says 100% Tariff On Generic Drugs Coming In 2028

    Generic drugs imported into the U.S. will be hit with a tariff of 100% in 2028 and 200% in later years in an attempt to drive manufacturing into the country, President Donald Trump said on social media.

  • July 21, 2026

    DC Circ. Affirms HHS Authority Over 340B Rebate Plans

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday upheld a lower court's finding that U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has the authority to block or approve drugmakers' efforts to implement rebates instead of discounts under the 340B drug-pricing program.

  • July 21, 2026

    Economist Concedes Opioid Stats' Limits In Albertsons Trial

    Despite testifying that Albertsons pharmacy records suggest some opioids dispensed in Washington state had "red flags" for potential diversion from legitimate use, an economist for the Evergreen State conceded Tuesday that he can't point to "even a single pill dispensed by Albertsons" that was actually improperly diverted. 

  • July 21, 2026

    Full Fed. Circ. Won't Review Apple's ITC Loss Against Masimo

    The full slate of Federal Circuit judges will not reconsider a panel's determination that Apple has infringed Masimo Corp.'s blood oxygen monitor patents in a high-profile case that led to some Apple Watch imports being banned.

  • July 21, 2026

    Class Cert. In Avandia MDL Undone For Lacking Stats

    The Third Circuit undid class certification for a group of health plans claiming GlaxoSmithKline deceptively marketed its diabetes drug Avandia, with a panel majority ruling Tuesday the plans needed stronger statistical analysis to show links between the marketing, the revelation of side effects and a drop in sales.

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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