Life Sciences

  • March 14, 2024

    Trial Challenging NC Abortion Restrictions Pushed To July

    A July trial date has been set in a closely watched constitutional challenge seeking to dismantle a state law that restricts access to abortions in North Carolina after 12 weeks, marking a pushback from the court's earlier projected spring timetable for the trial.

  • March 14, 2024

    EPA Slashes Ethylene Oxide Emissions Levels For Sterilizers

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized new Clean Air Act standards that it said will reduce emissions of ethylene oxide from commercial sterilization facilities by 90%, an action the agency said is necessary to help reduce the impact of the carcinogen on communities.

  • March 13, 2024

    9th Circ. Unsure If Abortion Pill Suit Harms Red States

    Two Ninth Circuit judges on Wednesday challenged Idaho and other Republican-led states' bid to intervene in Washington's lawsuit seeking to expand access to the abortion pill mifepristone, asking if the states could back up their claims of economic harm.

  • March 13, 2024

    Pharma Co. CEO Partly Beats Investor Suit Over Kidney Drug

    A California federal judge has tossed for good some claims against Tricida Inc. CEO Gerrit Klaerner in a suit alleging he and the company misled inventors about the ability of Tricida's new kidney disease drug to gain regulatory approval, saying that many of Klaerner's challenged statements are opinions and that he didn't act with knowledge of wrongdoing.

  • March 13, 2024

    HHS To Investigate Whether Cyberattack Exposed Patient Data

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opened an investigation Wednesday into the cyberattack on Change Healthcare to determine whether the hack exposed patients' confidential data or violated other privacy protections.

  • March 13, 2024

    Planned Parenthood Foe Calls Immunity Claim 'Half-Baked'

    Attorneys for a pseudonymous relator who sued Planned Parenthood over allegations that it improperly billed Medicaid programs urged the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday to reject the group's position that it was shielded by attorney immunity, calling the entity's argument "half-baked."

  • March 13, 2024

    Aetna Can't Avoid Bias Suit Over Fertility Treatment Policy

    Aetna must face a proposed class action alleging it readily covers fertility treatments for infertile heterosexual women but forces non-heterosexual women to spend thousands out of pocket before paying for their treatments, with a Connecticut federal judge saying it doesn't matter if the insurer didn't control the health plan's terms.

  • March 13, 2024

    Jury Must Weigh Willfulness In Secrets Case, Calif. Court Says

    A California state appellate court has found a jury will have to decide whether a former director at Applied Medical Distribution Corp. willfully misappropriated trade secrets from his former employer.

  • March 13, 2024

    BigLaw Paper Poacher Gets 15 Mos. In Merck Insider Case

    A Manhattan federal judge hit a former FBI trainee from Pennsylvania with a 15-month prison sentence Wednesday for illegally trading on a Merck & Co. deal using secrets gleaned from legal papers in the possession of his BigLaw ex-girlfriend.

  • March 12, 2024

    Eli Lilly GC's Pay Jumped To $7M In 2023 Amid Stock Boom

    Eli Lilly & Co. legal chief Anat Hakim's total pay package rose to $7 million last year, up 33% from 2022, according to Lilly's latest proxy statement, as the pharmaceutical giant has experienced booming drug sales and positive investor sentiment.

  • March 12, 2024

    Daiichi Urges Court To OK Arbitrator's Award Against Seagan

    Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo has asked a Seattle federal judge not to toss an arbitral award refusing Seagen Inc.'s claims for billions of dollars in a dispute over cancer drug patents, saying the U.S. biotech company has incorrectly lodged a petition to vacate the award.

  • March 12, 2024

    Federal Circuit Won't Reconsider Axing Tyvaso Patent

    The full Federal Circuit on Tuesday declined to review a panel ruling from late last year that sided with a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that there was nothing patentable about a way of administering a blockbuster pulmonary hypertension drug.

  • March 12, 2024

    Judiciary Touts New Policy To Rein In Judge Shopping

    The Judicial Conference of the United States on Tuesday said it has updated a policy on random case assignments to ensure litigants can't shop for the judge of their choice by going to a one-judge district court.

  • March 12, 2024

    NY Jury Rules Some Claims About Prevagen Are Misleading

    A New York federal jury said some statements made by Quincy Bioscience about its memory booster Prevagen were misleading to consumers but found that most statements about the supplement were made on solid grounds.

  • March 12, 2024

    2nd Circ. Revives Parts Of McKesson Whistleblower Suit

    The Second Circuit on Tuesday revived parts of a lawsuit brought by a McKesson Corp. whistleblower who accuses the pharmaceutical company of a kickback scheme, finding that the lower court should reconsider the claims that were brought under state anti-kickback laws.

  • March 12, 2024

    Breast Implant Co.'s $90M DIP OK'd With Creditor Protections

    Bankrupt breast implant maker Sientra Inc. received final court approval in Delaware bankruptcy court for its $90 million debtor-in-possession financing after adding in lien challenge protections for unsecured creditors.

  • March 12, 2024

    Ex-Biopharma CEO Sues For Post-Sale Share Appraisal In Del.

    The co-founder of Caraway Therapeutics Inc. sued in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Tuesday for an appraisal of his shares following the company's November merger with a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Merck, alleging that it "was an unfair cash-out transaction" and that he is owed at least a million more shares.

  • March 12, 2024

    Sorrento Ch. 11 Will Stay In Texas

    A Texas bankruptcy judge Tuesday denied requests to transfer the Chapter 11 case of drug developer Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. out of the Lone Star State for having insufficient ties to the venue.

  • March 12, 2024

    Reps Push Regulators For Answers On Marijuana Research

    A bipartisan pair of congress members on opposite sides of the cannabis legalization issue joined forces on Tuesday to blast federal agencies for not effectively implementing a bill whose stated purpose was to expedite research into marijuana's potential harms and benefits.

  • March 12, 2024

    Nurses' Challenge To NJ Vaccine Mandate Moot, Judge Rules

    A New Jersey federal judge tossed a suit challenging Gov. Phil Murphy's vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, ruling the case is moot because the mandate had been rescinded.

  • March 12, 2024

    Pharmacy Calls $11M False Claims Case A 'House Of Cards'

    A compounding pharmacy and its president trashed the Connecticut attorney general's $11 million false claims and kickback allegations against them as a "house of cards" that awarded "a sweetheart cooperation deal" to an alleged co-conspirator and improperly benefited private attorneys, calling instead for a judgment against the state.

  • March 12, 2024

    Paul Weiss' Digital Tech Chair On AI's Promises And Perils

    While generative artificial intelligence promises to increase access to justice and kill the billable hour, we don't know how to prevent it from unleashing misinformation and disinformation on the electorate, says Katherine Forrest, a former Manhattan federal judge who is now chair of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP's digital technology group.

  • March 12, 2024

    Insider Trader Cites 'Carelessness' Of BigLaw Ex-Girlfriend

    A former FBI trainee who kickstarted an insider trading scheme by looking at the confidential files of his then-girlfriend, a Covington & Burling LLP associate, has told a sentencing judge he isn't trying to downplay the seriousness of his actions by pointing to her "carelessness."

  • March 11, 2024

    Acadia Investors Get Class Cert. In Suit Over Parkinson's Drug

    A California federal judge on Monday certified a class of Acadia Pharmaceuticals investors in a lawsuit accusing the company of making false and misleading statements regarding the likelihood that its Parkinson's psychosis drug would also be approved for the broader use of dementia-related psychosis.

  • March 11, 2024

    Illumina Brass Faces Shareholder Suit Over Grail Deal Debacle

    Current and former directors and executives of Illumina, including former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit in California federal court over their role in the biotech company's failed $8 billion deal to reacquire its cancer-detection company Grail Inc.

Expert Analysis

  • Reverse Merger Tips For Biotechs After SEC's Recent Actions

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    Several recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission developments could limit the viability of reverse mergers for biotech companies, and will require additional creativity and analysis for private companies looking to go public, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Opinion

    Proposed Rule Misses The Mark On Improving MDLs

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recently proposed rule on multidistrict litigation would provide some guidance for courts on managing MDLs — but without any requirement for the early vetting of claims, it is particularly unhelpful for defendants in pharmaceutical and product liability cases, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Taking A Closer Look At Fed. Circ. Claim Construction Split

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    An empirical analysis of a year's worth of claim construction decisions from the Federal Circuit and four key district court jurisdictions shows that these constructions vary in material ways depending on the analysis' source, and this body of case law would benefit from clarification by the Federal Circuit itself, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • The 7th Circ.'s Top 10 Civil Opinions Of 2023

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    Attorneys at Jenner & Block examine the most significant decisions issued by the Seventh Circuit in 2023, and explain how they may affect issues related to antitrust, constitutional law, federal jurisdiction and more.

  • Employee Experience Strategy Can Boost Law Firm Success

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    Amid continuing business uncertainty, law firms should consider adopting a holistic employee experience strategy — prioritizing consistency, targeting signature moments and leveraging measurement tools — to maximize productivity and profitability, says Haley Revel at Calibrate Consulting.

  • Series

    Competing In Triathlons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While practicing law and competing in long-distance triathlons can make work and life feel unbalanced at times, participating in the sport has revealed important lessons about versatility, self-care and perseverance that apply to the office as much as they do the racecourse, says Laura Heusel at Butler Snow.

  • Parsing The USPTO's Guidelines For Assessing Enablement

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    Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb details the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent guidelines for assessing enablement principles set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Amgen v. Sanofi decision, including how the guidelines can apply to all fields of technology.

  • Notes Of Interest From 5th Circ. Illumina-Grail Merger Ruling

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    Attorneys at Simpson Thacher consider the Fifth Circuit's recent decision upholding the Federal Trade Commission's challenge of the Illumina merger with Grail, its much-needed boost to the Biden administration's antitrust agenda, and some silver linings the decision offers to merging parties.

  • DOJ's Biopharma Settlement Raises Anti-Kickback Questions

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    In the aftermath of the U.S. Department of Justice's settlement with Ultragenyx over genetic testing programs, it may be prudent to reevaluate genetic tests through the lens of the Anti-Kickback Statute and reconsider whether it is proper for free testing programs to be treated like patient assistance programs, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.

  • Where Justices Stand On Chevron Doctrine Post-Argument

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    Following recent oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court, at least four justices appear to be in favor of overturning the long-standing Chevron deference, and three justices seem ready to uphold it, which means the ultimate decision may rest on Chief Justice John Roberts' vote, say Wayne D'Angelo and Zachary Lee at Kelley Drye.

  • Precise Advance Notice Bylaws May Help Prevent Disputes

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    While the Chancery Court's December decision in Kellner v. AIM Immunotech shows that Delaware courts won't always uphold advance notice bylaws, and its willingness to selectively enforce or invalidate individual provisions doesn't create an incentive for companies to be surgical in their drafting, companies should nonetheless be precise when drafting such bylaws to avoid unnecessary disputes, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Perspectives

    6 Practice Pointers For Pro Bono Immigration Practice

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    An attorney taking on their first pro bono immigration matter may find the law and procedures beguiling, but understanding key deadlines, the significance of individual immigration judges' rules and specialized aspects of the practice can help avoid common missteps, says Steven Malm at Haynes Boone.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: Canada

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    In Canada, multiple statutes, regulations, common law and industry guidance address environmental, social and governance considerations, with debate over ESG in the business realm potentially growing on the horizon, say attorneys at Blakes.

  • 5 Legal Considerations For Psychedelic Therapy Sector

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    With multiple developments signaling the rise of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, it is imperative that clinicians understand unique legal nuances ranging from corporate formation to specialized insurance coverage, say Kimberly Chew and Natasha Sumner at Husch Blackwell.

  • Lessons From Country Singer's Personal Service Saga

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    Recent reports that country singer Luke Combs won a judgment against a Florida woman who didn’t receive notice of the counterfeit suit against her should serve as a reminder for attorneys on best practices for effectuating service by electronic means, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

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