Life Sciences

  • April 22, 2024

    Supreme Court Won't Review Vanda's IP Obviousness Appeal

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s request for review of how the Federal Circuit is deciding whether patents are invalid as obvious, ending the company's attempt to revive patents covering its sleep disorder drug Hetlioz.

  • April 19, 2024

    Allergan To Face Kickback Claim In Suit Over Child Botox Use

    A Texas federal judge has axed allegations that pharmaceutical company Allergan Inc. defrauded the U.S. government when it promoted the unapproved use of Botox to treat migraines in children but will allow claims that the company bribed doctors to conduct the procedure to move forward.

  • April 19, 2024

    Judge Mulls Axing Biomedical Cos.' $25M Punitive Damages

    Not enough evidence supports Skye Orthobiologics' $25.5 million punitive damages award against an ex-employee found to have breached his fiduciary duties by leveraging Skye's proprietary information, a California federal judge has ruled, asking for briefing on whether the proper remedy is to cut the damages or grant a new trial.

  • April 19, 2024

    Flint Class Urges Approval Of $25M Water Firm Settlement

    A proposed class of 45,000 Flint, Michigan, property owners, businesses and adult residents on Friday urged a Michigan federal court to give the go-ahead to a $25 million settlement with Veolia North America, the last remaining engineering defendant in sprawling litigation over the city's water crisis.

  • April 19, 2024

    Walgreens Inks $110M Deal To End Philly Opioid Crisis Suit

    Walgreens will pay the city of Philadelphia $110 million over the next five years to settle claims that it contributed to the opioid epidemic by ignoring suspicious prescriptions for addictive opioid painkillers, city officials announced Friday.

  • April 19, 2024

    J&J Unit Sued Over Defective Knee Replacements

    A woman is suing Johnson & Johnson unit DePuy Orthopaedics in New Jersey federal court, alleging it marketed and sold a faulty knee replacement system that's prone to failing, requiring additional surgery to fix the issue.

  • April 19, 2024

    Blumenauer: This 4/20 Will Be The Last For Schedule I Pot

    U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., one of the most ardent champions of marijuana policy reform on Capitol Hill, said Friday that he was optimistic 2024 would be final year that cannabis would remain a Schedule I substance under federal law.

  • April 19, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen U.K. holiday resort chain Butlins target Aviva and a huddle of insurers, Meta and WhatsApp tackle a patents claim by telecommunications company Semitel, an ongoing construction dispute between Essex County Council and Balfour Beatty, and Formycon AG hit a pharmaceutical company for infringing medical products. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • April 18, 2024

    USPTO Reveals Scaled-Back Plan For New Patent Board Rules

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office unveiled proposed Patent Trial and Appeal Board rules Thursday that would codify current policies on when multiple challenges to one patent are permitted and set a new briefing process about discretionary denials, which attorneys say should add clarity.

  • April 18, 2024

    NY Fertility Clinic Must Face Lost, Damaged Embryos Suit

    A New York appellate panel issued a published opinion Thursday reviving a suit over the loss or damage of embryos due to a fertility clinic's alleged negligence, saying the routine storage and maintenance of frozen embryos can be considered ordinary negligence rather than medical malpractice.

  • April 18, 2024

    EU Antitrust Chief Says Merger Tool Not A 'Power Grab'

    The European Commission's top competition enforcer said Thursday the agency has taken a measured approach to using its newly asserted power to review mergers that fall short of local thresholds, as the European trading bloc's high court mulls a challenge of that authority from DNA sequencing company Illumina.

  • April 18, 2024

    Pharma Ex-Exec Can't Revive $12M Underpayment Suit in US

    A Manhattan federal judge has refused to rethink her decision tossing a $12 million suit accusing Altum Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its cannabis-focused parent company, BetterLife Pharma Inc., of stock dilution and underpaying a former executive chairman of the board of directors, saying the claims are better suited for Canadian courts.

  • April 18, 2024

    J&J Notches Win In Fla. Talcum Powder Trial

    A Florida state jury returned a verdict for Johnson & Johnson on Thursday, finding the company's talcum-based baby powder had not been shown to cause the ovarian cancer of a longtime user of the product.

  • April 18, 2024

    Pharma Co. Wants Tribe's Opioid Suit To Stay In Federal Court

    A pharmaceuticals distributor has asked an Oklahoma federal court to reject a magistrate judge's recommendation to move to state court a suit accusing it of flooding the Cherokee Nation's communities with opioids, saying the tribe's complaint raises a substantial question of federal law.

  • April 18, 2024

    Endo Pleads Guilty To Marketing Opioids As 'Crush Proof'

    Endo Health Solutions Inc. pled guilty Thursday in Michigan federal court to putting out a drug it falsely advertised as being "crush proof" and "abuse deterrent," part of its larger agreement with the government to resolve nearly $2 billion in civil and criminal claims against the company.

  • April 18, 2024

    23andMe Taps Dechert To Review CEO Buyout Proposal

    A special committee of genetic testing company 23andMe has engaged Dechert LLP as its legal adviser and Wells Fargo as its financial adviser as it looks to review an anticipated buyout offer from its co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki, according to a statement Thursday.

  • April 18, 2024

    FDA Head Gets GOP Rep.'s Rebuke Over Pot Rescheduling

    The Republican chair of a U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday chided the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the agency's recommendation last year to loosen restrictions on marijuana.

  • April 18, 2024

    Biotech Co. NanoString Lands $393M Bid At Ch. 11 Auction

    Scientific instrument maker Bruker Corp. is set to acquire insolvent biotechnology company NanoString for roughly $393 million in cash that would be used to repay creditors under the debtor's recently proposed Chapter 11 plan, a notice filed in Delaware's bankruptcy court shows.

  • April 17, 2024

    Trial-Ready Paraquat MDL Cases Tossed After Testimony Axed

    An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday threw out the first group of trial-ready cases over the herbicide paraquat, agreeing with Syngenta and Chevron that the plaintiffs' expert testimony must be excluded and finding that the cases fail without that testimony.

  • April 17, 2024

    Walgreens Investors' $36M Deal In Opioid Suit Gets First OK

    An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday granted his initial approval of a $36 million settlement to end a stockholder's derivative suit accusing Walgreens and its leadership of failing to limit retail pharmacies from dispensing unreasonable amounts of opioids.

  • April 17, 2024

    PTC Therapeutics Settles Shareholder Suit Over Director Pay

    PTC Therapeutics Inc. has agreed to corporate governance reforms to settle a derivative shareholder lawsuit challenging its allegedly "lavish" non-employee director compensation awards, according to a stipulation of settlement filed Wednesday in Delaware's Court of Chancery.

  • April 17, 2024

    United Therapeutics Can't Bar Rival Lung Disease Drug

    Repeating himself for the second time in the last several weeks, a federal judge in Delaware on Wednesday said he won't stop a biochemical startup from launching a drug that would compete directly with one of United Therapeutics' biggest pharmaceutical products.

  • April 17, 2024

    Kraft Sued Over Lead Contamination In Lunchables

    Kraft has been slapped with a proposed class action over its popular Lunchables snack kits after independent testing of the kits allegedly found that they contained high, though legally allowable, levels of lead and other harmful substances.

  • April 17, 2024

    J&J Tells Jurors To Look To Evidence And Science In Talc Trial

    Johnson & Johnson's attorney urged a Florida jury Wednesday to look beyond the emotion in the case of a longtime baby powder user who died from cancer and to the science and the evidence, which he said fail to show a causal link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer.

  • April 17, 2024

    Karuna Investor Ends Suit After Bristol-Myers Seals $14B Deal

    A Karuna Therapeutics shareholder has dropped her proposed class action after Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. completed its $14 billion purchase of the biotechology company, a deal the suit alleged was brought about by misrepresentations to investors to gain their support.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Suits Against Insulin Pricing Are Driven By Rebate Addiction

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    A growing wave of lawsuits filed by states, cities and counties against insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers improperly allocate the blame for rising insulin costs, when in actuality the plaintiffs are partially responsible, says Dan Leonard at Granite Capitol Consulting.

  • Lessons For D&O Policyholders From Pharma Co. Ruling

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    A California federal court's recent decision in AmTrust v. 180 Life Sciences, requiring insurers to advance defense costs for a potentially covered claim, provides a valuable road map for directors and officers insurance policyholders, rebutting the common presumption that a D&O insurer's duty to advance costs is more limited than under other policies, say attorneys at Pasich.

  • How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts

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    Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.

  • 7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves

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    As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.

  • Series

    Cheering In The NFL Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Balancing my time between a BigLaw career and my role as an NFL cheerleader has taught me that pursuing your passions outside of work is not a distraction, but rather an opportunity to harness important skills that can positively affect how you approach work and view success in your career, says Rachel Schuster at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Args In APA Case Amplify Justices' Focus On Agency Power

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    In arguments last week in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Supreme Court justices paid particular importance to the possible ripple effects of their decision, which will address when a facial challenge to long-standing federal rules under the Administrative Procedure Act first accrues and could thus unleash a flood of new lawsuits, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: Gulf Cooperation Council

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    The Gulf Cooperation Council is in the early stages of ESG policy implementation, but recent commitments by both states and corporations — including increases in sustainable finance transactions, environmental commitments, female representation on boards and human rights enforcement — show continuing progress toward broader ESG goals, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • Opinion

    J&J Bankruptcy Could Thwart Accountability For Victims

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    Johnson & Johnson's latest attempt at a "Texas Two-Step" bankruptcy proceeding exemplifies the way in which corporate defendants can use bankruptcy to evade accountability, limit resources available to victims, and impose flawed, one-size-fits-all resolutions on diverse groups of plaintiffs, says Michelle Simpson Tuegel at Simpson Tuegel Law.

  • Inside The PTAB's Seagen Cancer Drug Patent Decision

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    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's recent finding that Seagen's claims for antibody-drug conjugate technology were unpatentable — for lack of enablement, lack of written description and anticipation — mark the latest chapter in the complex patent dispute as the case heads for director review, says Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Opinion

    Biden Admin's March-In Plan Would Hurt Medical Innovation

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    The Biden administration's proposal to reinterpret the Bayh-Dole Act and allow the government to claw back patents when it determines that a commercialized product's price is too high would discourage private investment in important research and development, says Ken Thorpe at the Rollins School of Public Health.

  • A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise

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    After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.

  • What's On The Horizon In Attorney General Enforcement

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    A look at recent attorney general actions, especially in the areas of antitrust and artificial intelligence, can help inform businesses on what they should expect in terms of enforcement trends as 10 attorney general races play out in 2024, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Preparing For DOJ's Data Analytics Push In FCPA Cases

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    After the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent announcement that it will leverage data analytics in Foreign Corrupt Practice Act investigations and prosecutions, companies will need to develop a compliance strategy that likewise implements data analytics to get ahead of enforcement risks, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Reducing The Risk Of PFAS False Advertising Class Actions

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    A wave of class actions continues to pummel products that allegedly contain per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, with plaintiffs challenging advertising that they say misleads consumers by implying an absence of PFAS — but there are steps companies can take to minimize risk, say attorneys at Keller and Heckman.

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