Analysis

Merck's $10B Pulmonary Power Play Is Among Its Top 5 Deals

By Al Barbarino

When Merck agreed to purchase respiratory disease-focused Verona Pharma PLC for $10 billion, it became one of Merck's largest deals ever, and the pharmaceutical giant made clear that its bet on a potentially transformative pulmonary therapy was much more than a speculative pipeline acquisition.

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Quinn Emanuel Sanctioned For Ad Case 'Misrepresentations'

By Jack Karp

A California federal judge imposed almost $3 million in sanctions on Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP for what he called the firm's "deliberate misrepresentations" concerning an expert witness in a false advertising suit between medical testing company Guardant Health and rival Natera.

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Fed. Circ. Questions Patent Ownership After J&J's $20M Loss

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit appeared somewhat skeptical Friday that an orthopedic surgeon held onto the rights of knee replacement patents that he disputably assigned elsewhere, which would endanger the $20 million infringement verdict he won against a Johnson & Johnson unit.

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DOJ Sends Warning In Gender Care Provider Subpoenas

By Dan McKay

The announcement of federal subpoenas targeting doctors who offer gender-affirming care signals an escalation in the Trump administration's campaign against such treatment, experts say, delivering a warning to healthcare providers.

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Analysis

Courts Face Early Push To Expand Justices' Injunction Ruling

By Katie Buehler

In the two weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed federal judges' ability to issue universal injunctions, Trump administration attorneys have begun pushing to expand the decision's limits to other forms of relief used in regulatory challenges and class actions. So far, judges don't appear receptive to those efforts. 

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Walgreens Boots Shareholders Approve $24B Sycamore Deal

By Al Barbarino

Walgreens Boots Alliance said Friday its shareholders have approved a plan for the company to be purchased by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, in a transaction with a total value of up to $23.7 billion.

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Fired Red Cross Vax Refuser Seeks $6M As Jury Trial Wraps

By Danielle Ferguson

An attorney for a nurse fired from the American Red Cross after being denied religious accommodation from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate asked a Detroit federal jury Friday for more than $6 million in damages for what he said was the organization's disregard of the woman's beliefs.

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3rd Circ. Revives Benicar MDL Fees Suit Against NJ Law Firm

By Carla Baranauckas

The Third Circuit on Friday revived a proposed class action against Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman LLC attorneys that claims they took excessive fees from plaintiffs' settlements in multidistrict litigation over the blood pressure drug Benicar, remanding the dispute for the district court to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the case.

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AbbVie Defeats Investor Class Suit Alleging Humira Kickbacks

By Rae Ann Varona

AbbVie on Thursday defeated a certified securities class action that accused it of giving healthcare providers unlawful kickbacks in exchange for prescribing its flagship arthritis drug Humira when an Illinois federal judge ruled that AbbVie provided legitimate services that were "integrally tied" to the drug itself.

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MSN Beats Novartis' Patent Suit Over Entresto

By Adam Lidgett

A Delaware federal judge on Friday found that Novartis couldn't show that MSN Pharmaceuticals Inc. infringed a patent related to its blockbuster drug Entresto, the latest in the company's wide-ranging fight to keep a generic version of the product off the market.

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Court Says Olympic Runner Treated Unfairly In Testing Appeal

By David Steele

South African Olympic gold medal-winning runner Caster Semenya was deprived of her right to a fair hearing by a Swiss federal court when she appealed testosterone limits imposed on female athletes by track and field's international governing body, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

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Success Tricking FDA Shouldn't Protect Merck, Justices Told

By Bryan Koenig

Physicians asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision immunizing Merck & Co. from antitrust claims over submissions it made to federal regulators over its mumps vaccine, arguing the Third Circuit went far beyond its peers in holding that deceiving the government isn't illegal if the deception worked.

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Analysis

The Biggest TM Rulings Of 2025: A Midyear Report

By Ivan Moreno

Justices overturned a trademark award of more than $40 million in a long-running case in which lower courts put a company's affiliates on the hook for the amount, and a pair of precedential decisions from the Federal Circuit provided guidance on whether colors can be protected trade dress. Here is Law360's list of the biggest trademark decisions so far this year.

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Drugmaker Fights Claims Over 'Misleading' IPO Statements

By Emilie Ruscoe

Investors in biopharmaceutical company BioAge Labs Inc. mischaracterized certain statements the company made in an effort to allege securities fraud after the company hit the brakes on a clinical trial for its lead product candidate, the company has argued.

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Amgen Eyes New Trial After Regeneron's $407M Antitrust Win

By Cara Salvatore

Amgen urged a Delaware federal judge in documents made public Friday to overturn a nearly $407 million antitrust and tortious-interference verdict in favor of Regeneron, saying there was a serious lack of evidence shown to the jury.

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Better Therapeutics Settles SPAC Suit In Del. For $1M

By Emily Lever

Defunct telehealth provider Better Therapeutics Inc. has reached a roughly $1 million settlement with a shareholder to end a Delaware Chancery Court suit challenging its take-public merger, according to court filings.

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2 Firms Tapped To Lead Regeneron Investor Suit

By Sydney Price

Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP and Motley Rice LLC have been named lead counsel in a proposed securities class action accusing Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its executives of misleading investors about its revenue prospects for its vision loss drug and inflating reimbursements.

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Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Kirkland, Cassels

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Merck buys U.K. drugmaker Verona Pharma, CoreWeave acquires fellow data center company Core Scientific, Royal Gold acquires Sandstorm Gold and Horizon Copper, and Italian food company Ferrero buys WK Kellogg.

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Brief

Cancer-Focused BridgeBio's $949M SPAC Deal Gets SEC Nod

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, advised by Goodwin Procter LLP, and White & Case LLP-led special purpose acquisition company Helix Acquisition Corp. II on Friday revealed that their $949 million merger had been cleared by U.S. regulators.

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Catching Up On Stewart's Discretionary Denial Decisions

By Dani Kass

Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart and a top administrative patent judge issued 15 discretionary denial decisions on Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions over the past week, across nearly 40 cases. Here's what they decided.

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IP Due Diligence Tips For AI Assets In M&A Transactions

Artificial intelligence systems' integration into business operations creates new considerations for intellectual property due diligence in mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions, and implementing a practical approach to identifying AI assets can help avoid litigation and losses, say Armin Ghiam and Senna Hahn at Hunton.

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Opinion

New USPTO Leadership Must Address Low-Quality Patents

With John Squires in line to become the new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency has an opportunity to refocus its mission on prioritizing quality in patent examination and taking a harsher stance against low-quality patents and patent trolls, says Jill Crosby at Engine Advocacy & Foundation.

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AbbVie Frees Taxpayers From M&A Capital Loss Limitations

The U.S. Tax Court’s June 17 opinion in AbbVie v. Commissioner, finding that a $1.6 billion break fee was an ordinary and necessary business expense, marks a pivotal rejection of the Internal Revenue Service’s position on the tax treatment of termination fees related to failed mergers or acquisitions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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Leveraging Diligence Findings For Better Life Sciences Deals

Life sciences parties should utilize due diligence strategically to review and draft deal documents, address issues identified during the diligence, and craft solutions to achieve the party's transactional goals, says Anna Zhao at Gunner Cooke.

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How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

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6th Circ. Judge Is 1st Sen. Confirmation Of Trump's 2nd Term

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 46-42 on Monday evening to confirm Whitney Hermandorfer, director of the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General's Strategic Litigation Unit, to the Sixth Circuit, making her the first judicial confirmation of the second Trump administration.

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NY Court Declines To Make Trump US Atty Permanent

By Andrea Keckley

The Northern District of New York said on Monday that it has declined to appoint interim U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III to the permanent seat ahead of his short-term tenure's expiration, despite his previous comments to the contrary to local media.

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Audio

San Francisco DA: 'Tough On Crime' Can Also Be Thoughtful

By Brandon Lowrey

In 2022, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins took charge of an office in turmoil after leading a successful recall effort against her predecessor, whom she criticized as too soft on crime. Now, Jenkins is under harsh public scrutiny as she works to shift the office's priorities. In this audio interview with the new Criminal Practice Law360, she discusses some of the challenges — and opportunities — of one of the highest-profile and most politicized prosecutors' offices in the nation.

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