Deals & Corporate Governance

  • May 22, 2024

    Doc Gets 3 Mos. For Alexion Trades Despite 'Meaningful Job'

    A doctor was sentenced to three months in prison Wednesday for insider trading on an Alexion Pharmaceuticals acquisition, with a Manhattan federal judge saying the defendant's treatment of critically ill, underserved kidney disease patients does not amount to a "get out of jail free card."

  • May 22, 2024

    Teva, Bristol-Myers Cite Bystolic Against Cancer Drug Case

    Celgene and parent Bristol-Myers Squibb pointed a New Jersey federal judge to the dismissal, recently upheld by the Second Circuit, of an antitrust suit over delayed generic competition to AbbVie's hypertension treatment Bystolic to argue the same logic applies to their bid to duck antitrust claims over cancer therapies.

  • May 22, 2024

    Covington Reps As Biogen Makes $1.8B Bet On HI-Bio

    Biogen Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to purchase Human Immunology Biosciences, or HI-Bio, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company working on targeted therapies for severe autoimmune diseases, in a deal that could see Biogen pay up to $1.8 billion.

  • May 21, 2024

    2nd Circ. Partially Backs Win For Nurses' Union Pension Plan

    In a 90-page opinion, the Second Circuit on Tuesday mostly upheld a Manhattan federal judge's decision affirming an arbiter's award favoring a nurses' pension plan, agreeing that White Oak Global Advisors LLC must return "Day 1" fees totaling nearly $2 million and pay prejudgment interest said to top $22 million.

  • May 21, 2024

    Sens. Challenge Pharma Lobbyist Over Patent Abuse

    U.S. senators from both sides of the aisle took turns at a Tuesday hearing questioning the pharmaceutical industry's top lobbyist over whether patent abuse plays a role in maintaining the high price of prescription drugs.

  • May 21, 2024

    Wyden Expands Pharma Tax Investigation With Pfizer Inquiry

    Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden asked Pfizer to provide details on its tax practices to explain how the drug company has consistently paid tax rates that are significantly lower than the corporate tax rate in a letter released by the committee Tuesday.

  • May 21, 2024

    SPAC Investor's Suit Changes Came Too Late, Chancery Rules

    A shareholder of a special-purpose acquisition company that merged with a now-defunct medical technology company in 2021 waited too long to amend his year-old proposed class action and must defend the case against a motion to dismiss in June, Delaware's Court of Chancery said Tuesday.

  • May 21, 2024

    Cano Judge Agrees To OK Ch. 11 Plan Disclosure Statement

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge agreed on Tuesday to sign off on Miami-based primary healthcare group Cano Health Inc.'s Chapter 11 disclosure statement for purposes of soliciting creditor votes once the debtor files a revised proposed order that bakes in language that garnered support from unsecured creditors.

  • May 21, 2024

    CVS Health Taps American Express Atty As Governance Chief

    The former chief governance officer at American Express announced on her LinkedIn page that she has joined CVS Health as its new senior vice president, corporate secretary and chief governance officer.

  • May 21, 2024

    Strategic Hiring Was The New Normal For BigLaw In 2023

    The 400 largest law firms by headcount in the U.S. grew more slowly in 2023 than in the previous two years, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP surpassed the 3,000-attorney threshold, according to the latest Law360 ranking.

  • May 21, 2024

    The Law360 400: Tracking The Largest US Law Firms

    The legal market expanded more tentatively in 2023 than in previous years amid a slowdown in demand for legal services, especially in transactions, an area that has been sluggish but is expected to quicken in the near future.

  • May 20, 2024

    Teladoc Faces Suit Over Mental Health Platform's Losses

    Telemedicine giant Teladoc Health Inc. and two of its executives face a proposed investor class action alleging trading prices for Teladoc shares fell after the company disclosed that its flagship mental health counseling platform saw membership and revenue declines despite increased advertising costs.

  • May 20, 2024

    Healthcare Futures Co. Sues Breakaway Ex-Members In Del.

    A company seeking to develop what it described as the first healthcare futures exchange has sued two former managers in Delaware's Court of Chancery for pilfering intellectual property and other resources and then launching a competing venture.

  • May 20, 2024

    Ga. Judge OKs $5M Atty Fees In $41M Acella Thyroid Deal

    A Georgia federal judge has signed off on a nearly $41.5 million class action settlement with Acella Pharmaceuticals LLC over faulty thyroid medication, while awarding the class attorneys another $5 million in legal fees courtesy of the pharma company.

  • May 20, 2024

    Shah Ends Novavax Proxy Fight Following Sanofi Deal

    Hedge fund Shah Capital Management Inc. told fellow Novavax Inc. shareholders Monday that it is ending its fight to remove certain members of the biotech company's board, citing its favorable view of Novavax's licensing deal with Sanofi earlier this month.

  • May 17, 2024

    Pfizer Unit Wins $107.5M Patent Verdict Against AstraZeneca

    A Delaware federal jury on Friday said that AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP should pay $107.5 million in royalty damages for infringing a Pfizer-brand cancer treatment patent, although a final decision won't be issued until after a bench trial on some of AstraZeneca's additional defenses. 

  • May 17, 2024

    Steward Health Ch. 11 Lifts Lid On PE In Healthcare

    Steward Health's $9 billion Chapter 11 has come under scrutiny from state attorneys general seeking to uncover why a once-rapidly growing hospital network ended up buried in debt, with authorities taking the unusual tack of turning a special eye toward its former private equity owner Cerberus Capital Management, experts told Law360.

  • May 17, 2024

    Healthcare Co. Sues Steward In Ch. 11 Over Military Contract

    A healthcare company that provides services to members of the military and their families sued debtor Steward Health Care on Thursday in Texas bankruptcy court, asking a judge there to declare that the provider properly terminated a subcontract with Steward due to its declining financial state.

  • May 17, 2024

    EndoStim Emerges From Delaware Insolvency Proceeding

    Delaware's Court of Chancery has approved the final accounting for medical device company EndoStim Inc.'s state-administered insolvency proceeding after no creditor or other party raised any objections at a final hearing on Friday.

  • May 17, 2024

    Cano Health Strikes $7M Deal With Unsecured Creditors

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge said Friday that she was prepared to send Cano Health Inc.'s Chapter 11 plan out for a creditor vote after hearing the medical care group has reached a $7 million settlement with its unsecured creditors.

  • May 16, 2024

    3rd Circ. Shuns Teva's 'Novel' Appeal On Israeli Investor Class

    The Third Circuit on Thursday turned away an appeal brought by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., saying the class certification stage was not the right time to hear arguments over the "novel" question of the applicability of U.S. securities laws to Israeli-listed shares.

  • May 16, 2024

    FTC Deputy Director Rao On Healthcare Antitrust Agenda

    The reason behind the Federal Trade Commission's changed attitude toward antitrust in healthcare in recent years isn't simple, according to Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition.

  • May 16, 2024

    Ex-Pharma Exec Cops To Contempt For Barred Finance Work

    A Boston federal judge on Thursday accepted a former pharmaceutical company executive's guilty plea to a criminal contempt charge for using an alias to work on a finance venture despite a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ban.

  • May 16, 2024

    $5.5M Apotex Generic Drug Price-Fixing Deal Gets Initial OK

    A Pennsylvania federal judge gave preliminary approval to yet another settlement in the sweeping generic drug price-fixing multidistrict litigation, this time signing off on pharmaceutical company Apotex's $5.5 million settlement with clinics, hospitals and independent pharmacies.

  • May 15, 2024

    UnitedHealth Concealed DOJ Merger Investigation, Suit Says

    UnitedHealth Group has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging that it failed to disclose that the U.S. Department of Justice had reopened an antitrust investigation into the health insurance giant following its acquisition of a healthcare data company, and that top executives had sold more than $120 million of shares knowing about the investigation before a news report revealed it to the public.

Expert Analysis

  • Feds' Biotech Enforcement Efforts Are Too Heavy-Handed

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent actions against biotech companies untether the Anti-Kickback Statute from its original legislative purpose, and threaten to stifle innovation and undermine patient quality of care, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures

    Author Photo

    The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • A Recipe For Growth Equity Investing In A Slow M&A Market

    Author Photo

    Carl Marcellino at Ropes & Gray discusses the factors bolstering appetite for growth equity fundraising in a depressed M&A market, and walks through the deal terms and other ingredients that set growth equity transactions apart from bread-and-butter venture capital investing.

  • PE-Healthcare Mergers Should Prepare For Challenges

    Author Photo

    State and federal regulators are increasingly imposing new requirements on healthcare transactions involving private equity partners, with mergers that would have drawn little scrutiny a few years ago now requiring a multijurisdictional risk analysis during the deal formation process, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • Behind Indiana's Broad New Healthcare Transactions Law

    Author Photo

    The high materiality threshold in Indiana's recently passed healthcare transaction law, coupled with the inclusion of private equity in its definition of healthcare entities, makes it one of the broadest state review regulations to date, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Highlights From The 2024 ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting

    Author Photo

    U.S. merger enforcement and cartels figured heavily in this year's American Bar Association spring antitrust meeting, where one key takeaway included news that the Federal Trade Commission's anticipated changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino form may be less dramatic than many originally feared, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • The Merger Cases That Will Matter At ABA Antitrust Meeting

    Author Photo

    While the American Bar Association's Antitrust Spring Meeting this week will cover all types of competition law issues in the U.S. and abroad, expect the federal agencies' recent track record in merger enforcement to be a key area of focus on the official panels and in cocktail party chatter, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Planning For Healthcare-Private Equity Antitrust Enforcement

    Author Photo

    U.S. antitrust agency developments could mean potential enforcement actions on healthcare-related acquisitions by private equity funds are on the way, and entities operating in this space should follow a series of practice tips, including early assessment of antitrust risks on both the state and federal level, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.

  • Why Oncology Deal Making Continues To Fuel Biotech M&A

    Author Photo

    The biotech sector's potential for advancements in cancer care continues to attract deal-maker interest, and the keys to successful mergers and acquisitions include the ability to integrate innovative therapies, leverage technological advancements and respond to the dynamic needs of patients, say Bryan Luchs and Mike Weir at White & Case.

  • Tips For Healthcare M&A Amid Heightened Antitrust Scrutiny

    Author Photo

    As the Biden administration maintains its aggressive approach to antitrust merger enforcement, prudent healthcare M&A counsel will consider practical advice when contemplating their next transaction, including carefully selecting a merger partner and preparing for a potentially long waiting period prior to closing, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

    Author Photo

    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • 5 Trends To Watch As Value-Based Healthcare Gains Steam

    Author Photo

    Value-based care has grown and evolved as healthcare providers, payors and policymakers seek to improve patient results while containing costs, and this shift in the industry is expected to accelerate in the near future, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • What's At Play In Rising Lanham Act Cases At The ITC

    Author Photo

    Amid an uptick in Lanham Act claims involving false advertising related to medical devices at the U.S. International Trade Commission, Brian Busey and Maryrose McLaughlin at MoFo discuss recent ITC complaints from Eli Lilly and R.J. Reynolds, Lanham Act claim limits under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the issues practitioners face in this realm.