Deals & Corporate Governance

  • May 01, 2024

    'Foul' BioVentrix Cash-Out Gets Extra Scrutiny, Chancery Says

    A medical device company's decision to suddenly and without explanation cash out its common stockholders for less than a penny just two months before the company raised $48.5 million in new capital creates such a "foul flavor" that it deserves extra scrutiny, a Delaware Chancery Court judge said Wednesday.

  • May 01, 2024

    Attys Say $5M Fee In Acella Settlement A Modest Proposal

    Plaintiffs' attorneys who recently reached a $46.5 million class action settlement with Acella Pharmaceuticals LLC over faulty thyroid medication asked a Georgia federal judge Tuesday to sign off on their $5 million cut of the deal as a "presumptively reasonable" proposal.

  • 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

    Healthcare Attys Turn Attention To Material Adverse Change

    Life sciences companies are focusing on a specific clause in M&A contracts to prevent unexpected disruptions from tanking deals, according to attorneys working on transactions in the healthcare industry.

  • April 30, 2024

    What's Behind the Q1 Digital Health Funding Rebound

    The digital health industry saw a resurgence in funding at the start of 2024, driven by a handful of mega-rounds and growing deal sizes across the board, but it also faced record-low deal counts as investors signaled pickier attitudes over which ventures they're choosing to fund.

  • April 30, 2024

    Health Attys Facing Noncompete Ban Keep Calm, Carry On

    In the wake of a momentous federal ban on virtually all noncompete restrictions, healthcare businesses and their lawyers are poring over employment contracts and fretting about the implications for an industry heavily reliant on noncompetes for doctors and many others.

  • April 30, 2024

    $626M Fee Award In BCBS Deal Is Unjust, High Court Told

    A member of the class that settled multidistrict litigation with Blue Cross Blue Shield for $2.67 billion over anti-competitive practices has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his challenge to the $626 million attorney fees award in the settlement, arguing the Eleventh Circuit's approval of the award runs counter to high court precedent.

  • 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

    FTC Says Novant Wants Court To Ignore Local Competition

    Novant Health can't ask a federal judge to ignore evidence that buying two North Carolina hospitals will stymie competition in the region just because those facilities are supposedly struggling and the proposed deal might shore up resources, the Federal Trade Commission said in a brief doubling down on its bid to block the $320 million buyout.

  • April 30, 2024

    PE-Backed Medline Buying Ecolab's Surgical Unit For $950M

    Private equity-backed medical supply company Medline said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire the global surgical solutions business of Ecolab Inc. for $950 million in cash.

  • 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

    Deciphera Stock Soars On $2.4B Deal With Japan's Ono

    Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday it has agreed to be purchased by Japan's Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. for $2.4 billion, which sent the Waltham, Massachusetts-based cancer drugmaker's stock soaring more than 72%.

  • April 26, 2024

    Therapy Co. SPAC Investors To Settle Del., Ill. Merger Suits

    An attorney for a blank-check company that took ATI Physical Therapy Inc. public told Delaware's Court of Chancery it has agreed to settle two proposed stockholder class actions in conjunction with pending federal class and derivative suits in the Northern District of Illinois.

  • April 25, 2024

    NC Hospital Leader Condemns FTC's Merger Block Bid

    The chief of staff for a North Carolina hospital in the midst of a merger battle ripped the care facility's current owners Thursday in a show of support for new ownership, pleading for federal antitrust regulators to get out of the way lest they usher in "a year long death marked by suffering" for the hospital.

  • April 25, 2024

    Nursing Agency Urges 4th Circ. To Overturn $9M Wage Ruling

    A nurse staffing agency pressed the Fourth Circuit to overturn a lower court's decision ordering the agency to pay workers $9 million in a misclassification suit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor, saying the lower court should have made the government prove the nurses were employees.

  • April 25, 2024

    Wachtell Steers Perrigo In €275M Unit Sale To Pharma Biz

    Healthcare company Perrigo said Thursday that it has agreed to sell its pharmaceutical division for rare diseases to pharmaceutical company Esteve Healthcare SL for €275 million ($295 million) in a deal guided by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Clifford Chance LLP.

  • April 24, 2024

    Bid To Sanction DOJ Denied In Novel Insider Trading Case

    A California federal judge on Tuesday refused to grant an indicted former healthcare CEO's bid to sanction the government in a case accusing him of a novel form of insider trading, saying the CEO failed to show that he was prejudiced by the government interviewing a potential witness without counsel present. 

  • April 24, 2024

    Sheppard Mullin Healthcare Team Adds Crowell & Moring Atty

    Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP announced the fifth addition to its healthcare industry team this year on Wednesday, welcoming a former Crowell & Moring LLP partner with broad corporate transactional and governance expertise.

  • April 24, 2024

    Private Equity Lag Continues To Stunt M&A Growth

    Large leveraged buyout activity remained muted in the first quarter as the refinancing of old private equity loans took precedence over new loans, contributing to a slower-than-anticipated rebound in overall mergers and acquisitions, according to a new report from data provider PitchBook.

  • April 23, 2024

    Failure Of Eli Lilly Insulin Deal Won't End Patients' Litigation

    The collapse of a massive deal to settle claims Eli Lilly illegally inflated insulin prices may not alter the trajectory of the underlying litigation, as patients are already pressing ahead with a new version of their proposed class action.

  • April 23, 2024

    GoodRx Hid Revenue Reliance On Kroger, Suit Claims

    GoodRx Holdings Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action alleging it concealed from investors the indispensability of its relationship with Kroger, leading to share declines when GoodRx announced revenue would be severely impacted because the grocery chain would no longer be accepting its discount codes.

  • April 23, 2024

    Virtua Says Trinity Health Won't Pay $12M ER Fight Legal Bill

    Virtua claimed Monday in New Jersey federal court that Trinity Health has backed out of an agreement to cover $12 million in counsel fees and costs incurred in a legal fight with a rival healthcare system over Virtua's acquisition of Our Lady of Lourdes Health Care Services from Trinity.

  • April 23, 2024

    Cutting Costs, Controlling Leverage To Drive Healthcare M&A

    Upcoming deal flow in the healthcare industry will be driven by companies looking to bring down costs and improve margins while grappling with circumstances like patent expirations and regulatory scrutiny.

  • April 23, 2024

    Healthcare Deals This Week: 23andMe, Incyte And More

    From a billion-dollar collaboration to a potential go-private proposal, the past week has seen a spur of deal activity in the healthcare industry.

  • April 22, 2024

    Petersen Health Shouldn't Get LLCs Back, Creditor Says

    A loan servicer of bankrupt senior-living company Petersen Health Care has asked a Delaware bankruptcy court to dismiss the Chapter 11 cases of 16 of Petersen's affiliates, saying they could not file for bankruptcy because they were at the time, and still are, in receivership.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Cos. Must Adapt To Calif. Immigration Data Privacy Law

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    California’s recently signed A.B. 947 expands the California Consumer Privacy Act and brings the state in line with other comprehensive privacy laws that address immigration status, meaning companies should make any necessary updates to their processes and disclosures, say Kate Lucente and Matt Dhaiti at DLA Piper.

  • Looking For Defense Contract Appeal Trends In Annual Report

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    A deep dive into the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals annual report for the 2023 fiscal year reveals increases in the number of cases filed, pending motions and expedited or accelerated cases, while the board disposed of fewer cases than in prior fiscal years, say Scott Flesch and Alexandra Prime at Miller & Chevalier.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • A Look At Successful Bid Protests In FY 2023

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    Attorneys at Sheppard Mullin look beyond the statistics in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recent annual report on bid protests, sharing their insights about nine categories of sustained protests, gained from reading every fiscal year 2023 decision in which the protester had a positive result.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • AI Use May Trigger False Claims Act's Public Disclosure Bar

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    The likely use of publicly available artificial intelligence tools to detect government fraud by combing through large data sets will raise complex questions about a False Claims Act provision that prohibits the filing of claims based on previously disclosed information, say Nick Peterson and Spencer Brooks at Wiley Rein.

  • Beware Privacy Risks In Training AI Models With Health Data

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    Because data used to train artificial intelligence models may be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or other regulations, users of these models should conduct proper diligence to avoid costly compliance failures, say Neha Matta and Barbara Bennett at Frost Brown.