Cleary-Led Blackstone Wraps Record $6.3B Life Sci Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity giant Blackstone, led by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, revealed Monday that it wrapped its sixth life sciences fund after securing $6.3 billion of capital commitments, marking what the firm says is the largest private life sciences fund ever raised.

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Eli Lilly's $2.75B Pact Is Latest In AI Drug Discovery Push

By Al Barbarino

Eli Lilly and Co. has agreed to a partnership with artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery company Insilico that could be worth up to $2.75 billion, amid an expanding category of collaboration fueled by pharmaceutical giants seeking accelerated paths to new treatments. 

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FCA Qui Tams Are Unconstitutional, Eli Lilly Tells Justices

By Mark Payne

The False Claims Act's whistleblower provisions are unconstitutional, drugmaker Eli Lilly has told the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to overturn a Seventh Circuit decision upholding a $183 million trial win for a whistleblower who claimed the drug company hid how much it charged for Medicaid-covered drugs. 

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Justices Pass On FCA Suit Alleging Quest Diagnostics Fraud

By Chart Riggall

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday a former Quest Diagnostics Inc. compliance officer's bid for review of the dismissal of a long-running False Claims Act suit against the medical testing company.

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High Court Turns Away CRISPR Patent Validity Dispute

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Agilent Technologies' bid to revive patents on the gene-editing tool CRISPR, which centers on the burden of proof in establishing prior art.

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Don't Set Special IP Rules For 'Skinny Labels,' Justices Told

By Ryan Davis

Drugmakers, industry groups, hospitals and scholars have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a decision letting a patent suit proceed over a generic drug using a so-called skinny label, saying the generics company is seeking unwarranted special protections that would upend patent law.

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Justices Reject TM Appeal Tied To 'Use In Commerce'

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal challenging a Ninth Circuit ruling that upheld a multimillion-dollar default judgment based largely on statements defendants made in trademark applications.

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Sanofi Claims IP Life Extension Needed For Double Patenting

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board rightly found a Sanofi patent application shouldn't be rejected for obviousness-type double patenting, as it doesn't improperly extend patent life, the French drugmaker and its allies have told U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires.

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Del. Judge Upholds $34M Verdict In Glaucoma Patent Feud

By Elliot Weld

A Delaware federal judge has affirmed a $34 million verdict against Alcon and related entities for infringing patents covering medical devices to treat glaucoma, disagreeing that Sight Sciences Inc. had failed to show the accused product meets the limitations of the patent claims.

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Eagle Pharma To Pay $9.5M To End Channel Stuffing Claims

By Katryna Perera

Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its former executives have agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle investor claims that they carried out a fraudulent "channel stuffing" scheme to inflate the revenue of one of the company's brand-name medications.

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J&J Unit Wants Forensic Exam Of Ex-Director's Devices

By George Woolston

A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary urged a New Jersey federal court to order a former associate director to submit to a court-supervised forensic inspection of any device or account in which she could have stored confidential information it claims she downloaded in order to start her own competing company.

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Opinion

AI Presents A Make-Or-Break Moment For Outside Counsel

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence by corporate legal departments is forcing a long-overdue reset of the relationship between inside and outside counsel, and introducing a significant opportunity to shed frustrating inefficiencies and strengthen collaboration for firms willing to embrace the shift, says Intel Chief Legal Officer April Miller Boise.

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Getting The Most Out Of Learning And Development Programs

Junior associates can better develop the legal, business and interpersonal skills they need for long-term success by approaching their firms’ learning and development programs armed with five tips for getting the most out of these resources, says Lauren Hakala at Reed Smith.

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Lack Of Harm Dooms Ex-Estate Firm Partner's Bid For Notices

By Abigail Harrison

The founding partner of a trusts and estates law firm lost his bid to have the North Carolina Business Court order the firm to notify thousands of clients of his departure and hand over their contact information, with the judge ruling the lawyer failed to show he suffered irreparable harm.

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Brief

Moye White, Ex-Landlord Settle $4M Denver Lease Dispute

By Zach Dupont

Days before the start of a bench trial between a Denver landlord and defunct law firm Moye White LLP in state court the two parties reached a settlement, ending the litigation where the landlord accused the firm of owing almost $4 million.

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Blumenthal Presses DHS Chief To Scrap ICE Warrant Memo

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, is looking for assurances from the newly installed secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, that he will honor his apparent pledge to rescind a policy that allows immigration agents to enter private property without a judicial warrant.

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NC Attys Oppose DOJ Interference In State Ethics Complaints

By Hayley Fowler

A group of North Carolina lawyers is opposing the U.S. Department of Justice's proposed rule allowing the attorney general to review state-level ethics complaints against the department's attorneys, saying such a change would undercut the Tar Heel State's ability to regulate government lawyers.

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Nixon Peabody Hires Hometown Litigator In Rhode Island

By Tracey Read

Nixon Peabody LLP has added a civil and criminal business litigation and trial attorney from Godfrey & Kahn SC to its complex disputes practice as a partner in Providence, Rhode Island.

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Beasley Allen Seeks Stay Of DQ In Federal J&J Talc MDL

By Jake Maher

The Beasley Allen Law Firm asked a New Jersey federal court on Monday to hold off on disqualifying it from talc litigation against Johnson & Johnson while it appeals the disqualification order which it called "unprecedented and incorrect."

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70+ Republicans Ask Justices To Review NY Gun Liability Law

By Courtney Bublé

More than 70 Republican lawmakers from both the House and Senate have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision that upheld New York state's public nuisance statute, which allows lawsuits against gun manufacturers that cause public harm.

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Michigan Judge OKs Lawyers' Exit From Atty's Retaliation Suit

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Michigan federal judge has allowed a trio of lawyers to withdraw from representing an attorney accusing her former mentor of sexual harassment and her former law firm of retaliation.

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