Life Sciences

  • May 01, 2024

    J&J Proposes $6.5B Deal To End Ovarian Cancer Claims

    Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it is proposing a prepackaged reorganization plan for its talc unit that will pay out $6.5 billion to resolve claims that its talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer, if a supermajority of claimants agree to the plan.

  • April 30, 2024

    Ex-Olympus Exec Says He Was Fired For Flagging FDA Issue

    The former global head of product development at medical manufacturer Olympus Corp. said he was fired earlier this year after he reported multiple compliance concerns regarding the company's practices and related to nearly 100 products, according to a suit filed Monday in Pennsylvania federal court.

  • April 30, 2024

    Judge Strikes Parts Of NC Law Restricting Abortion Drug

    A North Carolina federal judge struck down parts of a state law Tuesday that restricts access to the abortion medication mifepristone, finding some provisions violate the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause by enacting safety regulations already considered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as requiring in-person prescribing, dispensing and scheduling around the drug.

  • April 30, 2024

    Tech. Orgs Deny Being 'Apple's Puppets' In Watch Ban Fight

    A group of technology industry groups claimed they are "not Apple's puppets" as they seek to back the company in its Federal Circuit appeal of the U.S. International Trade Commission's ban on imports of Apple Watch models capable of monitoring blood oxygen levels.

  • April 30, 2024

    Chase Can't Escape Medical Services Co.'s Defamation Suit

    A Florida federal judge refused Monday to toss a suit by a medical services company accusing JPMorgan Chase Bank NA of destroying its business by adding it to a "blacklist," canceling its transactions and falsely telling its business partners that sanctions typically applied to violators of international laws or human rights statutes caused the cancellations.

  • April 30, 2024

    Pharmacyclics Can't Score Fees After Imbruvica Patent Win

    Delaware's top federal judge on Tuesday told AbbVie's Pharmacyclics LLC unit that it was "also guilty of vexatious conduct" and had no standing to seek legal fees after it won a patent infringement suit against generic-drug rivals over its branded blockbuster cancer drug Imbruvica.

  • April 30, 2024

    Amgen Cuts Deal To End Bone Drug IP Suit Against Sandoz

    A New Jersey federal judge has signed off on a deal that would end a suit where Amgen accused Sandoz of infringing patents on treatments for bone cancer and bone problems.

  • April 30, 2024

    SEC Fines 3 Men For Insider Trading On Zogenix Buyout

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached deals Tuesday totaling more than $170,000 with three men accused of trading shares of biopharmaceutical company Zogenix Inc. based on insider information.

  • April 30, 2024

    BCBS Says Federal Drug Law Preempts NM Medical Weed Row

    A group of insurers, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico, urged a New Mexico federal judge to reject a proposed class action seeking to compel them to cover their policyholders' medical marijuana costs, arguing that state law doesn't require it and federal law forbids it.

  • April 30, 2024

    Pfizer Can't Slip COVID-19 Vax Suit, Texas Tells Court

    The Texas attorney general told a federal judge not to let Pfizer Inc. out of its suit accusing the pharmaceutical company of misleading the public about its COVID-19 vaccine, arguing the suit was properly pled under state law in a brief filed Monday.

  • April 30, 2024

    Drug Company Can't Escape Texas Counties' Opioid MDL

     A Texas appeals court on Tuesday declined to cut loose a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical manufacturer from Texas multidistrict litigation over opioid addiction in the state, finding that the counties of Dallas and Bexar have demonstrated that it's made deliberate moves toward the Texas market.

  • April 30, 2024

    3rd Circ. Preview: Kavanaugh Classmate Takes On HuffPost

    The Third Circuit's May lineup will find the court weighing HuffPost's battle with an allegedly libeled former classmate of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and claims by consumers alleging they bought defective Bayer antifungal medicine.

  • April 30, 2024

    Judge Tosses LTL's Suit Over Article Linking Talc To Cancer

    A New Jersey federal judge on Tuesday tossed a suit from the bankrupt talc unit of Johnson & Johnson accusing three doctors of damaging its business through a medical journal article it claimed was backed by "junk science," ruling that the doctors having served as expert witnesses in the Garden State is not enough to show that the court has jurisdiction over its claims.

  • April 30, 2024

    FTC Continues To Target 'Junk' Drug Patents

    Federal trade officials told a series of pharmaceutical companies — including the makers of the controversial diabetes and weight loss drug Ozempic — that they may have listed faulty patents in a key register of a federal drug database.

  • April 30, 2024

    Vaxart Investors Want Sanctions Over Deleted Texts

    A group of Vaxart investors asked a California federal judge to issue sanctions against Armistice Capital LLC, which previously controlled Vaxart and allegedly sold $267 million worth of its Vaxart shares at inflated prices, saying the hedge fund and its executives purposely deleted text messages integral to the investors' claims.

  • April 30, 2024

    Feds Endorse Easing Marijuana Status In Big Policy Shift

    Federal drug enforcers will recommend loosening restrictions on cannabis for the first time since the drug was made federally illegal decades ago, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

  • April 30, 2024

    Don't Miss It: McDermott, Paul Weiss Lead Month's Hot Deals

    A lot can happen in the world of mergers and acquisitions over the course of a month. Here, Law360 recaps the deals you may have missed, including transactions helmed by McDermott and Paul Weiss.

  • April 30, 2024

    Medical Device Biz Hologic To Buy UK Rival For $310M

    Hologic Inc. has agreed to buy Endomagnetics Ltd., a developer of breast cancer surgery technology, for approximately $310 million, as the U.S. medical company moves to expand its presence in the women's health sector.

  • April 29, 2024

    Pfizer Inks $25M Deal Ending Leftover Effexor Antitrust Claims

    A proposed class of indirect buyers have asked a New Jersey federal judge to greenlight a $25.5 million settlement to end allegations that Pfizer unit Wyeth engaged in a scheme with Teva Pharmaceuticals to delay generic competition for the antidepressant Effexor XR.

  • April 29, 2024

    Judge Rejects 2 Challenges To Medicare Drug Price Talks

    A New Jersey federal judge on Monday shot down a pair of challenges to the Medicare drug price negotiations, extending a string of court victories for the Biden administration as it defends the talks as entirely voluntary.

  • April 29, 2024

    Sandoz Says Biopharma Biz Added 'Poison' To Market

    More than $160 million separate generic-drug maker Sandoz Inc. and biopharmaceutical firm United Therapeutics Corp. in their estimates of damages suffered by Sandoz when the other company effectively blocked the sale of Sandoz's generic version of a hypertension medication, according to opening statements Monday during a bench trial in New Jersey federal court.

  • April 29, 2024

    Mistrial Called In $86M Stent Patent Case Against Medtronic

    An $86 million case in Texas over stents sold by medical device giant Medtronic has ended in a mistrial after U.S. District Judge Alan Albright was notified that a juror didn't want to budge on a position that was at odds with the rest of the jurors.

  • April 29, 2024

    Boehringer Accused Of Monopolizing Inhaler Product Market

    Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals has manipulated the U.S. patent and drug approval system to unlawfully block makers of generic inhaler medications, health and welfare funds claimed in a lawsuit filed Monday in Connecticut federal court, arguing that the "availability of generics has tangible cost and life-saving effects."

  • April 29, 2024

    Pharma Co. Hit With Investor Suit Over Liver Drug Trials

    Biopharmaceutical company Akero Therapeutics and three of its executives were hit with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging they made misleading statements about the patient population in a clinical trial for its liver disease treatment.

  • April 29, 2024

    HHS Delays Menthol Cigarette Ban Indefinitely

    U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said Friday that a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes has been put on hold for now, citing the need to process considerable feedback from civil rights groups and the criminal justice movement.

Expert Analysis

  • Args In APA Case Amplify Justices' Focus On Agency Power

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    In arguments last week in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Supreme Court justices paid particular importance to the possible ripple effects of their decision, which will address when a facial challenge to long-standing federal rules under the Administrative Procedure Act first accrues and could thus unleash a flood of new lawsuits, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: Gulf Cooperation Council

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    The Gulf Cooperation Council is in the early stages of ESG policy implementation, but recent commitments by both states and corporations — including increases in sustainable finance transactions, environmental commitments, female representation on boards and human rights enforcement — show continuing progress toward broader ESG goals, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • Opinion

    J&J Bankruptcy Could Thwart Accountability For Victims

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    Johnson & Johnson's latest attempt at a "Texas Two-Step" bankruptcy proceeding exemplifies the way in which corporate defendants can use bankruptcy to evade accountability, limit resources available to victims, and impose flawed, one-size-fits-all resolutions on diverse groups of plaintiffs, says Michelle Simpson Tuegel at Simpson Tuegel Law.

  • Inside The PTAB's Seagen Cancer Drug Patent Decision

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    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's recent finding that Seagen's claims for antibody-drug conjugate technology were unpatentable — for lack of enablement, lack of written description and anticipation — mark the latest chapter in the complex patent dispute as the case heads for director review, says Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Opinion

    Biden Admin's March-In Plan Would Hurt Medical Innovation

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    The Biden administration's proposal to reinterpret the Bayh-Dole Act and allow the government to claw back patents when it determines that a commercialized product's price is too high would discourage private investment in important research and development, says Ken Thorpe at the Rollins School of Public Health.

  • A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise

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    After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.

  • What's On The Horizon In Attorney General Enforcement

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    A look at recent attorney general actions, especially in the areas of antitrust and artificial intelligence, can help inform businesses on what they should expect in terms of enforcement trends as 10 attorney general races play out in 2024, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Preparing For DOJ's Data Analytics Push In FCPA Cases

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    After the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent announcement that it will leverage data analytics in Foreign Corrupt Practice Act investigations and prosecutions, companies will need to develop a compliance strategy that likewise implements data analytics to get ahead of enforcement risks, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Reducing The Risk Of PFAS False Advertising Class Actions

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    A wave of class actions continues to pummel products that allegedly contain per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, with plaintiffs challenging advertising that they say misleads consumers by implying an absence of PFAS — but there are steps companies can take to minimize risk, say attorneys at Keller and Heckman.

  • Series

    Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.

  • Opinion

    New Rule 702 Helps Judges Keep Bad Science Out Of Court

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    A court's recent decision to exclude dubious testimony from the plaintiffs' experts in multidistrict litigation over acetaminophen highlights the responsibility that judges have to keep questionable scientific evidence out of courtrooms, particularly under recent amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702, says Sherman Joyce at the American Tort Reform Association.

  • SG's Office Is Case Study To Help Close Legal Gender Gap

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    As women continue to be underrepresented in the upper echelons of the legal profession, law firms could learn from the example set by the Office of the Solicitor General, where culture and workplace policies have helped foster greater gender equality, say attorneys at Ocean Tomo.

  • Opinion

    Patent Waiver For COVID Meds Would Harm US Biopharma

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    If the Biden administration backs the World Trade Organization in waiving patent rights on COVID-19 treatments, it would negatively affect the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry and help foreign competitors, without necessarily expanding global access to COVID-19 care, says clinical pathologist Wolfgang Klietmann.

  • Skirting Anti-Kickback Causation Standard Amid Circuit Split

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    Amid the federal circuit court split over the causation standard applicable to False Claims Act cases involving Anti-Kickback Statute violations, which the First Circuit will soon consider in U.S. v. Regeneron, litigators aiming to circumvent the heightened standard should contemplate certain strategies, say Matthew Modafferi and Terence Park at Frier Levitt.

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