Health

  • October 25, 2024

    Pharmacy Must Pay $39.2M In Conn. Kickback Case

    A defunct compounding pharmacy must pay $39.2 million in damages and penalties for its role in a kickback scheme that made illegal payments to Connecticut state employees and retirees, a state court judge ruled Friday while letting the company's proprietor off the hook.

  • October 25, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen the Competition and Markets Authority take action against a mattress retailer after it was caught pressuring its customers with misleading discounts, Lenovo and Motorola target ZTE Corporation with a patents claim, Lloyds Bank hit by another claim relating to the collapse of Arena Television and U.K. tax authority HMRC sued by the director of an electronics company that evaded millions of pounds in VAT. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • October 25, 2024

    Kirkland-Led Nautic Closes Largest-Ever Fund At $4.5B

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised Nautic Partners LLC on Friday announced that it closed its largest fund yet after securing $4.5 billion from investors.

  • October 24, 2024

    FTC Official Doubts Election Will Deter Antitrust 'New Era'

    The Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition director defended the agency's new guidelines and its track record during a wide-ranging discussion at the 34th annual Golden State Institute on Thursday, and he expressed confidence that whichever presidential candidate wins, a new administration won't deter this "new era" of FTC antitrust enforcement actions.

  • October 24, 2024

    Mich. AG Claims Express Scripts, Optum Fueled Opioid Crisis

    The state of Michigan has taken aim at Express Scripts and OptumRx for their role in the opioid crisis in a complaint filed in state court Thursday, the latest state to claim the companies for years boosted sales of opioids by giving them favorable placement on drug lists in exchange for rebates.

  • October 24, 2024

    11th Circ. Seeks Bias Test Briefing In Fla. Trans Patients' Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit has ordered Florida health officials and transgender individuals to provide additional briefing in the state's appeal to reverse a ruling blocking its ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care, directing the parties to present their positions on whether hostile discrimination analysis applies to certain classes of people.

  • October 24, 2024

    Colo. Justices Grill State On Biz Names, ID Theft Law

    Colorado Supreme Court justices pressed state prosecutors Thursday on why a man's reversed conviction for identity theft should be reinstated, saying the identity theft law's use of "name" as a type of personal information seems to suggest the law refers only to people and not corporations.

  • October 24, 2024

    2nd Circ. Says Healthcare Arbitrations Were Properly Halted

    The Second Circuit affirmed Thursday that a lower court properly halted a group of healthcare providers from pursuing thousands of arbitrations against State Farm as part of an alleged massive fraudulent scheme, ruling in a novel opinion the injunction did not violate federal arbitration law.

  • October 24, 2024

    IP Forecast: Inhibrx Co-Founder Faces Biotech Secrets Trial

    A Wilmington federal jury next week will hear a trade secrets lawsuit that accuses a biotech executive of helping himself to confidential information about cancer treatment antibodies while being employed as an expert in an unrelated $200 million arbitration proceeding. Here's a spotlight on that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.

  • October 24, 2024

    AMA Latest To Sue MultiPlan Over Out-of-Network Pricing

    The American Medical Association and the Illinois State Medical Society are the latest to accuse MultiPlan and the nation's largest health insurers of colluding through the use of the data firm's pricing tools to systematically underpay out-of-network providers, alleging in Illinois federal court Thursday that the "far-reaching and unlawful cartel" inhibits its members from offering critical care.

  • October 24, 2024

    7th Circ. Doubts Satanic Temple Can Wage Abortion Fight

    A Seventh Circuit panel appeared skeptical Thursday that the Satanic Temple had standing to challenge Indiana's near-complete abortion ban, with questioning turning contentious when one judge pointed out that the religious organization would be blocked from providing abortion drugs through telehealth appointments even without the law. 

  • October 24, 2024

    Judges Doubt 'Troublesome' Comments Warrant New Trial

    Washington appellate judges appeared skeptical Thursday that a handful of comments could've triggered jury bias and tainted the trial of a Palestinian woman's medical malpractice case, though one judge called it "troublesome" that defense counsel told jurors the accused doctor was "from this part of the world."

  • October 24, 2024

    'Will Of The People' Upheld With Ohio Abortion Ban Quashed

    An Ohio state court judge on Thursday permanently blocked the state's "heartbeat law" that prohibited abortion around six weeks of pregnancy, citing a 2023 ballot measure that enshrined the right to an abortion in the state constitution.

  • October 24, 2024

    PBMs Want Separate FTC Hearings Over Insulin Prices

    Caremark Rx LLC, Express Scripts Inc. and OptumRx Inc. are calling for separate proceedings in the Federal Trade Commission's case accusing the pharmacy benefit managers of artificially inflating insulin prices through unfair rebate schemes.

  • October 24, 2024

    Dems Urge HHS To Better Protect Wheelchair Users From PE

    A pair of Democratic senators is pressing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to do more to protect the approximately 5.5 million wheelchair users in the country from private equity "abuses."

  • October 24, 2024

    Co-Worker's Affair With Father Made Work Hostile, Suit Says

    A former employee of a healthcare research company has said she was forced to resign from her job after a co-worker developed an "unhealthy obsession" with her father, making sexual comments about him and engaging in a torrid affair while he participated in one of the company's clinical trials.

  • October 24, 2024

    Brach Eichler Healthcare Leader Jumps To Pullman & Comley

    The vice chair of Brach Eichler LLC's healthcare practice has joined Pullman & Comley LLC as a partner based in the firm's Westport, Connecticut, office.

  • October 24, 2024

    Conn. High Court Snapshot: $13M Tax Appeals, Will Dispute

    The Connecticut Supreme Court's second term of the 2024-2025 season will commence Monday with a dispute over whether an attorney bungled a will that sought to divide a $845,368 TD Ameritrade account among five beneficiaries, only one of whom received any cash.

  • October 24, 2024

    ITC Bans Foreign Counterfeit Tourniquets

    The U.S. International Trade Commission banned foreign counterfeits of a tourniquet used by the U.S. military, finding that a broad exclusion order was necessary to protect the domestic manufacturers' intellectual property.

  • October 24, 2024

    Cigna, Frontier Renew Stalled Merger Bids, Plus Other Rumors

    Cigna Group and Frontier Airlines have both restarted once-stalled bids to acquire smaller rivals, rekindling merger rumors spanning the healthcare and airlines industries, while Sports Illustrated's secondary ticket platform wants to borrow up to $50 million to acquire competitor Anytickets. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.

  • October 24, 2024

    Mass. Justices Reject Meta, Google 'Wiretap' Claims

    Massachusetts' highest court on Thursday found that website operators' use of tracking software like Meta Pixel and Google Analytics does not violate the state's wiretap law, drawing a sharp dissent from one justice who said the legislature will now need to "correct" the court's mistake.

  • October 23, 2024

    TriZetto Gets New Damages Trial After Ax Of $200M Awards

    A New York federal judge Wednesday agreed to hold a new damages trial in Cognizant affiliate TriZetto's trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement dispute with Syntel, a development that comes after the judge wiped out $200 million in damages awards in favor of TriZetto earlier this year.

  • October 23, 2024

    Court Denies Fees In 'Objectively Specious' Trade Secrets Suit

    A Seattle federal judge has agreed that a dental health insurer litigated an "objectively specious" trade secrets lawsuit against two of its former company officials, but ruled that not enough showed it was pursuing the case "in bad faith."

  • October 23, 2024

    No Xenophobia Taint In Fired Prof's Jury Trial, Panel Says

    An Ohio state appellate court has upheld a jury's finding that a Cincinnati medical center did not violate employment law when it fired a tenured associate professor, rejecting the professor's argument that the medical center attempted to stoke "xenophobic bias" in the jury by mentioning his Chinese heritage during trial.

  • October 23, 2024

    3 Things To Know About Proposed OTC Contraception Regs

    The Biden administration's proposal to require private health insurers to pick up the cost of over-the-counter contraception could increase access for an estimated 52 million women. Here are three things to know about the newly proposed regulations.

Expert Analysis

  • The Regulatory Headwinds Facing Lab-Developed Tests

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    Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's final rule regarding regulation of laboratory-developed tests outlines a four-year plan for ending enforcement discretion, and though this rule is currently being challenged in courts, manufacturers should heed compliance opportunities immediately as enforcement actions are already on the horizon, say attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis.

  • 3 High Court Rulings May Shape Health Org. Litigation Tactics

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    Three separate decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court's most recent term — Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy — will likely strengthen healthcare organizations' ability to affirmatively sue executive agencies to challenge regulations governing operations and enforcement actions, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Opinion

    A New Way Forward For COVID Vaccine Lawsuit Immunity

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    As Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act protections for COVID-19 vaccines wane, adding those vaccines to coverage by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program would bolster defenses for administrators and manufacturers while also providing stronger remedies for those injured by vaccines, says Altom Maglio at MCT Law.

  • Opinion

    The Big Issues A BigLaw Associates' Union Could Address

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    A BigLaw associates’ union could address a number of issues that have the potential to meaningfully improve working conditions, diversity and attorney well-being — from restructured billable hour requirements to origination credit allocation, return-to-office mandates and more, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union

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    As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.

  • Why DOJ's Whistleblower Program May Have Limited Impact

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower pilot program aims to incentivize individuals to report corporate misconduct, but the program's effectiveness may be undercut by its differences from other federal agencies’ whistleblower programs and its interplay with other DOJ policies, say attorneys at Milbank.

  • How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act

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    In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.

  • Opinion

    DOL's Impending Mental Health Act Regs Should Be Simplified

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    The U.S. Department of Labor should consider revising these six issues in its forthcoming Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act regulations to ease the significant compliance hurdles for group health plan sponsors, says Alden Bianchi at McDermott.

  • Parsing FY 2024 DOJ Criminal Healthcare Fraud Enforcement

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    While the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division's strike force on healthcare fraud enforcement action shows an impressive doubling of criminal indictments, a closer look at the data offers important clues about underlying trends, including the comparably modest, accompanying increase in associated intended loss, say Roderick Thomas and Kathleen Cooperstein at Wiley.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Flags Work Harassment Risks Of Social Media

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    The recent Ninth Circuit ruling in Okonowsky v. Garland, holding an employer could be liable for a co-worker's harassing social media posts, highlights new challenges in technology-centered and remote workplaces, and underscores an employer's obligation to prevent hostile environments wherever their employees clock in, say Jennifer Lada and Phillip Schreiber at Holland & Knight.

  • Vendor Rights Lessons From 2 Chapter 11 Cases

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    A Texas federal court’s recent critical vendor order in the Zachry Holdings Chapter 11 filing, as well as a settlement between Rite Aid and McKesson in New Jersey federal court last year, shows why suppliers must object to critical vendor motions that do not recognize creditors' legal rights, says David Conaway at Shumaker.

  • How Cos. With Chinese Suppliers Should Prep For Biotech Bill

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    A proposed bill to prohibit government-affiliated life sciences companies from contracting with Chinese biotech companies of concern may necessitate switching to other sources for research and supplies, meaning they should begin evaluating supply chains now due to the long lead times of drug development, say John O'Loughlin and Christina Carone at Weil Gotshal.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Can Chapter 15 Bankruptcy Help Cannabis Businesses?

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    Attorneys at Fox Rothschild consider whether Chapter 15 may be used as a tool to liquidate U.S. assets of cannabis companies in foreign bankruptcy proceedings, and look at the statutory provisions that may have a bearing on the successful liquidation of assets under the Bankruptcy Code.

  • FTC's Drug Middlemen Probe Highlights Ongoing Scrutiny

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    The Federal Trade Commission's interim staff report on its inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers suggests that the industry will remain under an enforcement microscope for the foreseeable future due to concerns about how PBMs affect drug costs and accessibility, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

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