Deals & Corporate Governance
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March 11, 2025
Walgreens' $24B Take-Private Deal Moves It Out Of Spotlight
Walgreens' $23.7 billion deal with private equity firm Sycamore Partners will take the pharmacy retailer off the public market and ultimately out of the spotlight as it looks to quietly continue in its turnaround efforts.
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March 10, 2025
Masimo Founder Urges Toss Of 'Empty Voting' Suit
The founder of Masimo Corp. has urged a New York federal court to permanently toss the medical technology company's suit alleging he manipulated a shareholder vote, arguing that the suit fails to state a plausible claim under the Exchange Act.
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March 10, 2025
DOJ Wants In On Invisalign Monopoly Arguments At 9th Circ.
The U.S. Department of Justice wants to be there when orthodontists and consumers who purchased clear teeth aligners face off with the company behind Invisalign at the Ninth Circuit next month, so it can tell the appellate judges where the lower court went wrong in killing their monopoly suits.
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March 07, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Wachtell, Skadden
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Walgreens Boots Alliance goes private via a deal with Sycamore Partners, Honeywell buys Sundyne from Warburg Pincus, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals acquires Chimerix.
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March 06, 2025
FTC Challenges PE Firm's Medical Device Coatings Deal
The Federal Trade Commission moved Thursday to block private equity firm GTCR BC Holdings LLC's planned $627 million acquisition of Surmodics Inc. over concerns about competition for medical device coatings.
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March 06, 2025
Walgreens Boots Inks $24B Go-Private Deal With Sycamore
Walgreens Boots Alliance said Thursday it has agreed to be purchased by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a transaction with a total value of up to $23.7 billion, as the storied retailer looks to reverse years of financial declines by going private.
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March 06, 2025
Kirkland-Led Medical Device Firm Prices Upsized $202M IPO
Shares of Kestra Medical Technologies Ltd. soared in debut trading Thursday after the maker of wearable defibrillators priced an upsized $202 million initial public offering above its range, represented by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and underwriters' counsel Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP.
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March 05, 2025
Pfizer, BioNTech Get PTAB To Invalidate Moderna Vaccine IP
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board handed a massive victory to Pfizer and BioNTech on Wednesday, as it invalidated two Moderna patents covering its Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine, which the challengers stand accused of infringing.
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March 05, 2025
DOJ Fights Bid To Pause Piece Of Amedisys Merger Case
The U.S. Department of Justice is opposing a bid from Amedisys to pause allegations that it shirked its merger filing requirements until after a trial on UnitedHealth's acquisition of the home health and hospice company.
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March 05, 2025
3 Firms Build Jazz Pharmaceuticals' $935M Chimerix Buy
Jazz Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday revealed plans to acquire biopharmaceutical company Chimerix in a $935 million deal built by three law firms that will further diversify Jazz's oncology portfolio.
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March 04, 2025
Meijer Says 1st Circ. Must Resolve Takeda Arbitration Order
Grocery store chain Meijer on Tuesday urged a Massachusetts federal judge to allow it to immediately appeal his ruling granting Takeda Pharmaceutical's bid to arbitrate the grocer's antitrust claims over a constipation drug, arguing that the case presents several issues that the First Circuit needs to address.
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March 04, 2025
Moderna Faces MRNA Vax Patent Suits In Canada And Beyond
Pennsylvania drug developer Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences have taken their COVID-19 vaccine litigation against Moderna worldwide, suing the pharmaceutical company in courts in Canada, Japan and Switzerland, along with the Unified Patent Court, alleging infringement.
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March 04, 2025
NC Judge Wants 1st Look At Info In Hospital Sale Suit
A North Carolina judge has ruled that she needs to be the first one to review potentially privileged information sought in Attorney General Jeff Jackson's suit alleging that a hospital sale agreement was breached, reasoning that it's too early to determine if they're public record or shielded attorney-client communications.
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March 04, 2025
Healthcare Deals This Week: Sofinnova, Lilly, AbbVie
It was a busy week for life science dealmaking, with Eli Lilly announcing that it was setting aside $27 billion for U.S. manufacturing, then inking a blockbuster agreement in the molecular glue space.
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March 04, 2025
Conn. Hospital Network Seeks Sanctions From Antitrust Class
Hartford HealthCare Corp. moved to sanction a proposed class of antitrust plaintiffs for asking a Connecticut judge to formally recognize a document exchange schedule privately agreed to by both sides, arguing that it should get attorney fees and costs for opposing the request.
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March 03, 2025
Full Fed. Circ. Won't Take On Teva's Orange Book Appeal
The Federal Circuit on Monday rejected a request for an en banc rehearing from Teva Pharmaceuticals challenging a panel decision finding that the company improperly listed its asthma inhaler patents on a key U.S. Food and Drug Administration database that lists patents for drugs.
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February 28, 2025
J&J Talc Spinoff Wraps Two-Week Chapter 11 Trial
A marathon Chapter 11 trial for Johnson & Johnson's talc liability unit wrapped up Friday, with attorneys defending the $10 billion plan against competing efforts to toss the Texas bankruptcy.
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February 28, 2025
Bioventus Hit With Del. Derivative Suit After NC Class Deal
A Bioventus Inc. stockholder sued 15 current and former directors and officers of the medical device venture in Delaware's Court of Chancery to recover for the company tens of millions in losses tied to alleged mismanagement and corporate duty failures over a two year period.
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February 28, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Gibson Dunn, Skadden
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Blackstone acquires Safe Harbor Marinas, National Grid sells its green subsidiary in the U.S. to Brookfield, Apollo Global Management buys Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc., and Teleflex splits into two publicly traded companies.
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February 28, 2025
Goodwin, White & Case Build BridgeBio's $949M SPAC Deal
Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, advised by Goodwin Procter LLP, on Friday announced plans to go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Helix Acquisition Corp. II, advised by White & Case LLP, in a deal that gives the combined business an implied pro forma enterprise value of $949 million.
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February 27, 2025
4th Circ. Rips 'Shaky At Best' Drug Price-Fixing Class Action
The Fourth Circuit backed the dismissal of a proposed class action accusing drug companies of conspiring to inflate the price of a drug for Huntington's disease, writing in the opinion that the allegations are "shaky at best," "sparsely pleaded" and "stretch civil RICO liability beyond its limits."
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February 27, 2025
Lenders Can't Claim Ex-Mylan VP's $4M Insider Trade Penalty
Lenders who said they were owed money by a former Mylan vice president can't call dibs on any of the $4.3 million he was ordered to forfeit as part of his guilty plea to insider trading since they hadn't shown that they had a better claim to the money than the defendant or the government, a Pennsylvania federal judge has ruled.
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February 27, 2025
Medical Device Co. Inks €760M Deal, Unveils Separation Plans
Medical device company Teleflex, advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, on Thursday announced that it will split into two separate, publicly traded entities, and that it will acquire Biotronik SE & Co.'s vascular intervention business for €760 million ($791.95 million).
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February 25, 2025
FTC Probing $615M Healthcare Staffing Merger
Talent software and staffing company Aya Healthcare Inc.'s roughly $615 million bid to buy Cross Country Healthcare Inc. and take the staffing and recruitment company private hit a snag last week with a Federal Trade Commission merger probe that prevents the transaction from closing, for now.
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February 25, 2025
WilmerHale, Cleary Steer $4.1B Thermo Fisher-Solventum Deal
WilmerHale and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP are the principal advisers on a new agreement for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. to purchase the purification and filtration business of Solventum for $4.1 billion in cash, according to statements from the companies on Tuesday.
Expert Analysis
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Hot OSHA Summer: Regulatory Activity In Full Swing
Recent actions by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — including changes to its injury and illness reporting rule, its proposal to allow nonemployee union reps to accompany OSHA inspectors, and a hazard alert on extreme heat — show that the agency's regulatory and enforcement regime remains vigorous, says Heather MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.
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Nursing Homes Must Prepare For Ownership Scrutiny
Due to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' designation of nursing home ownership changes as a high risk category, and increased transparency and notice obligations for changes in skilled nursing facility ownership set to take effect in Pennsylvania in October, owners should anticipate a heightened level of review and delays, say Mark Mattioli and Paula Sanders at Post & Schell.
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In-Office Engagement Is Essential To Associate Development
As law firms develop return-to-office policies that allow hybrid work arrangements, they should incorporate the specific types of in-person engagement likely to help associates develop attributes common among successful firm leaders, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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Trends Emerge In High Court's Criminal Law Decisions
In its 2022-2023 term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued nine merits decisions in criminal cases covering a wide range of issues, and while each decision is independently important, when viewed together, key trends and takeaways appear that will affect defendants moving forward, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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A Judge's Pitch To Revive The Jury Trial
Ohio state Judge Pierre Bergeron explains how the decline of the jury trial threatens public confidence in the judiciary and even democracy as a whole, and he offers ideas to restore this sacred right.
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Negotiating AI-Life Sciences Partnerships To Minimize IP Risk
When life sciences companies and AI companies form partnerships to foster innovation, the parties should align interests as well as mitigate intellectual property risks by strategically identifying and addressing the unique AI-related legal issues, such as training data, AI model and output, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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How To Recognize And Recover From Lawyer Loneliness
Law can be one of the loneliest professions, but there are practical steps that attorneys and their managers can take to help themselves and their peers improve their emotional health, strengthen their social bonds and protect their performance, says psychologist and attorney Traci Cipriano.
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Litigation Funding Disclosure Should Be Mandatory
Despite the Appellate Rules Committee's recent deferral of the issue of requiring third-party litigation funding disclosure, such a mandate is necessary to ensure the even-handed administration of justice across all cases, says David Levitt at Hinshaw.
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Recalling USWNT's Legal PR Playbook Amid World Cup Bid
As the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team strives to take home another World Cup trophy, their 2022 pay equity settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation serves as a good reminder that winning in the court of public opinion can be more powerful than a victory inside the courtroom, says Hector Valle at Vianovo.
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Revalidation Unlikely To End NIH Tech-Deal Bid Protest Saga
Recent U.S. Government Accountability Office decisions requiring the National Institutes of Health to again rework a $50 billion information technology contract probably won't result in an award for many protesters, and the corrective action will likely be followed by more protests, say James Tucker and Damien Specht at MoFo.
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Colorado Antitrust Reform Carries Broad State Impact
Colorado recently became the latest state to update and expand its antitrust laws, and the new act may significantly affect enforcement and private litigation, particularly when it comes to workers and consumers, says Diane Hazel at Foley & Lardner.
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Parsing Through The FTC's Proposed Health Privacy Updates
The Federal Trade Commission's recently proposed updates to its Health Breach Notification Rule contain subtle but significant changes to key terms that help modernize the agency's health app regulation and provide stakeholders an important opportunity to help shape the future of virtual health care, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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Regulating AI: An Overview Of Federal Efforts
The U.S. has been carefully managing a national policy and regulatory ecosystem toward artificial intelligence, but as AI technology continues to expand into our everyday lives, so too has its risks and the need for regulation, says Jennifer Maisel at Rothwell Figg.