Life Sciences

  • November 04, 2024

    Kroger, State AGs Finalize Sprawling $1.37B Opioid Deal

    Kroger will pay $1.37 billion to dozens of states and thousands of counties, municipalities and Native American tribes to resolve allegations the grocery store chain contributed to the opioid crisis, with Ohio, California and Texas seeing the largest distributions, according to a finalized settlement unveiled Monday.

  • November 04, 2024

    Whistleblowers Win Cut Of Medical Kickback Settlement

    Three whistleblowers who tipped off the federal government to a medical device company's multimillion-dollar kickback scheme are entitled to a cut of the $3 million in False Claims Act settlements paid by surgeons who admitted participating in the sham consulting ploy, a Boston federal judge ruled Monday.

  • November 04, 2024

    Sanctions Lessened Against Testing Co. That 'Duped' Judge

    A California federal judge Monday lessened sanctions imposed on Natera Inc. in a false advertising case first brought by rival Guardant Health Inc., allowing some clinical cancer study evidence to be presented at a trial starting Tuesday despite his earlier finding that Natera's expert and counsel had "duped" the court.

  • November 04, 2024

    Startup Beats $460M Cancer Trade Secrets Case In Delaware

    In front of a federal jury in Delaware, a California biotech startup has defeated a nearly $460 million trade secrets case from a rival that claimed the startup's co-founder helped himself to confidential information regarding cancer treatment antibodies while employed as an expert in an unrelated international arbitration proceeding.

  • November 04, 2024

    Del. Judge To Approve Avante Ch. 11 Financing

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge Monday agreed to approve debtor-in-possession financing for Jordan Health, the corporate parent of medical equipment service provider Avante Health, after the debtor and DIP lender struck a deal with the official committee of unsecured creditors.

  • November 04, 2024

    Cigna Scores $7.3M Verdict Against Fla. Drug Testing Labs

    A Connecticut federal jury on Monday handed Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. a victory against three Florida boutique drug testing laboratories, finding the labs unjustly billed nearly $7.3 million for tests on substance abuse patients that the insurer declared medically unnecessary.

  • November 04, 2024

    Late New Evidence Can't Revive Investor Suit, Judge Says

    A Massachusetts federal judge has declined to vacate the dismissal of an investor class action alleging that a hearing loss treatment company and some of its executives concealed disappointing clinical trial results, saying the plaintiff "is playing fast and loose with the Rules of Civil Procedure," and trying to blame the court and the clerk for his own procedural missteps.

  • November 04, 2024

    Yale Gets 2nd Circ. Win In COVID Test Reimbursement Row

    A Connecticut medical practice can't sue Yale University under federal legislation enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic to recover the $1.1 million it said it incurred while providing COVID testing to university health plan members, the Second Circuit ruled Monday, finding no private cause of action existed.

  • November 04, 2024

    Errors Lower Fee Award For Athira Pharma Investors' Counsel

    A Seattle federal judge has awarded $2 million in attorney fees to four firms that represented a class of Athira Pharma investors following a $10 million settlement over allegations the company's former CEO manipulated Alzheimer's drug studies, trimming the 25% fee award the firms sought due to an "overall lack of success in this litigation."

  • November 04, 2024

    NJ Judge Blocks Sun Pharma From Launching Hair Loss Drug

    A New Jersey federal judge has blocked for now Sun Pharmaceutical Industries from launching a product meant to treat hair loss in the U.S., handing Incyte a win in its patent infringement lawsuit against the India-based company.

  • November 04, 2024

    Sandoz Wins $70M In Antitrust Suit Over Hypertension Drug

    A New Jersey federal court awarded Sandoz Inc. just over $70 million in damages in a case accusing biopharmaceutical firm United Therapeutics Corp. of blocking the sale of a generic version of a hypertension medication, according to a Friday order.

  • November 04, 2024

    Federal Trade Commission Atty Returns To Katten In DC

    An attorney who spent more than a decade at the Federal Trade Commission has returned to private practice at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, where he began his legal career, boosting the firm's offerings for clients as they navigate increased antitrust scrutiny and enforcement. 

  • November 04, 2024

    US IPO Activity Hits Standstill As Election Takes Center Stage

    U.S. initial public offerings have screeched to a halt amid peak election season, and dealmakers expect new listings to largely remain iced until next year as market participants sort out ramifications of Tuesday's presidential and congressional contests.

  • November 01, 2024

    Medisca Inks $22M FCA Deal Over Ingredient Pricing Scheme

    Pharmaceutical chemical supplier Medisca Inc. has agreed to pay $21.75 million to resolve allegations it created false and inflated average wholesale prices for ingredients used in compound prescriptions sold to pharmacies that increased reimbursement and caused federal healthcare programs to pay more for them, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday.

  • November 01, 2024

    UChicago Must Face Student's Disability Discrimination Claim

    A University of Chicago medical student who was dismissed for creating a fake email account to send an instructor evaluations can pursue his claim that the university illegally tied his multiple mental and physical disabilities to his dismissal, but he must drop his claim that the university failed to accommodate those disabilities, an Illinois federal judge said Thursday.

  • November 01, 2024

    Jury To Decide Timing Issue In Insulin Patch Trade Secret Row

    A Massachusetts federal judge has refused to trim some allegations in Insulet Corp.'s suit alleging that a South Korean insulin pump patch manufacturer stole trade secrets, while finding that a jury needs to decide when the clock started to tick on a federal trade secrets claim.

  • November 01, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Davis Polk, Wachtell

    In this week's Taxation with Representation, BC Partners sells its majority equity interest in GardaWorld, Lone Star Funds sells specialty chemicals company AOC to Nippon Paint Holdings, Crescent Biopharma takes GlycoMimetics private, and Francisco Partners buys AdvancedMD from Global Payments.

  • November 01, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen two industry magnates take on the Gambling Commission, Ordinance Survey hit with a claim from a Swiss GPS maker, and China's largest oil company PetroChina face a claim from a Polish documentary maker. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • November 01, 2024

    Up To $755M Added To AZ Scuttled-Drug Damage Claim In Del.

    A stockholder representative for former shareholders of biopharmaceutical company Syntimmune has proposed up to $755 million in additional damages after a Delaware vice chancellor found that an AstraZeneca PLC unit failed to reasonably pursue drug development milestones after acquiring Syntimmune in 2018.

  • November 01, 2024

    4 States To Vote On Expanding Cannabis Or Psychedelics

    On Tuesday, voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota will decide whether to legalize cannabis for adult recreational use, while Massachusetts — where marijuana is already fully legal — will decide whether to decriminalize and regulate certain psychedelics.

  • October 31, 2024

    Judge 'Duped' By BigLaw Attys Urged To Preserve Sanctions

    Guardant Health urged a California federal judge Thursday to reject a request from Natera's Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP attorneys to lessen sanctions barring clinical trial evidence in Guardant's false advertising case, noting the court said it had been "duped" by false and misleading statements from Natera's expert and counsel.

  • October 31, 2024

    IP Forecast: Another Apple Watch Trial Kicks Off In California

    Apple and Masimo will face off next week in their long-running feud over whether the tech giant misappropriated Masimo's trade secrets for some of the health-monitoring features used in newer versions of the Apple Watch. Here's a spotlight on that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.

  • October 31, 2024

    NY Court Urged To Reject 'Audacious' Shareholder Test Cases

    Leading business groups have come to the aid of Bayer AG and Barclays PLC as the companies seek to fend off a pair of "audacious" test cases that have landed in New York's highest court, with the groups arguing that allowing the lawsuits to move forward would flood the state court with derivative lawsuits against foreign companies and overturn decades of precedent.

  • October 31, 2024

    CVS Unit Exec's Ex-Partner Charged With Insider Trading

    The former domestic partner of a top executive at Oak Street Health Inc., a primary care provider network owned by CVS Health Corp., was charged in Philadelphia federal court Thursday with insider trading on advance information about CVS' $10.6 billion deal to buy Oak Street in 2023.

  • October 31, 2024

    Drug Cos. To Pay $49M For State-Led Generic Pricing Claims

    A contingent of state-level enforcers reached settlements totaling $49.1 million on Thursday with Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Apotex Corp. for their alleged part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to inflate the price of generic drugs.

Expert Analysis

  • 3 Patent Considerations For America's New Quantum Hub

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    Recent developments signal an incredibly bright future for Chicago as the new home of quantum computing, and it is crucial that these innovators — whose technology has the potential to transform many industries — prioritize intellectual property strategy, says Andrew Velzen at McDonnell Boehnen.

  • A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President

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    For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • How Companies Are Approaching Insider Trading Policies

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    An analysis of insider trading policies recently disclosed by 49 S&P 500 companies under a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule reveals that while specific provisions vary from company to company, certain common themes are emerging, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • 11 Patent Cases To Watch At Fed. Circ. And High Court

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    As we head into fall, there are 11 patent cases to monitor, touching on a range of issues that could affect patent strategy, such as biotech innovation, administrative rulemaking and patent eligibility, say Edward Lanquist and Wesley Barbee at Baker Donelson.

  • Opinion

    3rd. Circ. Got It Right On Cancer Warning Claims Preemption

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    The Third Circuit's recent, eminently sensible ruling in a failure-to-warn case against Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, holding that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts state law claims, provides a road map that other courts should adopt, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation.

  • Opinion

    To Lower Drug Prices, Harris Must Address Patent Thickets

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    If Vice President Kamala Harris is serious about her pledge to address high drug prices, she must begin by closing loopholes that allow pharmaceutical companies to develop patent thickets that can deter generic or biosimilar companies from entering the market, says Tahir Amin at the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Obviousness In Director Reviews

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    Three July decisions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office favoring petitioners indicate a willingness by the director to review substantive issues, such as obviousness, particularly in cases where the director believes the Patent Trial and Appeal Board provided incorrect or inadequate rationale to support its decisions, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • Opinion

    Agencies Should Reward Corporate Cyber Victim Cooperation

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    The increased regulatory scrutiny on corporate victims of cyberattacks — exemplified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against SolarWinds — should be replaced with a new model that provides adequate incentives for companies to come forward proactively and collaborate with law enforcement, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • Takeaways From UPC's Amgen Patent Invalidity Analysis

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    The Unified Patent Court Central Division's decision in Regeneron v. Amgen to revoke a patent for lack of inventive step is particularly clear in its reasoning and highlights the risks to patentees of the new court's central revocation powers, say Jane Evenson and Caitlin Heard at CMS.

  • 5 Ways Life Sciences Cos. Can Manage Insider Trading Risk

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    In light of two high-profile insider trading jury decisions against life sciences executives this year, public companies in the sector should revise their policies to account for regulators' new and more expansive theories of liability, says Amy Walsh at Orrick.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • Bayer Antitrust Case Hinged On Evolving Market Definition

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    Generic flea and tick medication manufacturer Tevra's evolving market definition played a key role in the development and outcome of its five-year antitrust litigation against Bayer Healthcare, highlighting challenges that litigants may face when a proposed definition is assessed at trial, say Amy Vegari and Colleen Anderson at Patterson Belknap.

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