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Life Sciences
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June 12, 2025
5 Firms Guide $1.25B BioNTech, CureVac Oncology Deal
German biotech firm BioNTech SE said Thursday that it will acquire CureVac NV, a clinical-stage mRNA specialist, in an all-stock oncology-focused deal valuing it at about $1.25 billion and involving five legal advisers.
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June 12, 2025
Chancery Tags AstraZeneca Unit For $180M 'Expectation' Loss
Rejecting calls for a $755 million award, a Delaware vice chancellor ruled late Wednesday that a biopharmaceutical company's shareholders are due $180.9 million in post-merger "expectation damages" plus interest after an AstraZeneca PLC unit's failure to reasonably pursue an acquired drug prospect.
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June 11, 2025
9th Circ. Doubts Kleenex Ad Fight Belongs In District Court
Two judges on a Ninth Circuit panel doubted Wednesday that they have jurisdictional authority to revive a putative class action alleging Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Kleenex Wet Wipes Germ Removal products mislead consumers about its ability to kill germs, saying repeatedly that the consumers' complaint has not met their burden to establish jurisdiction.
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June 11, 2025
PTAB Issues Mixed Group Of Discretionary Denial Decisions
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has invoked its discretion to free Nike Inc. and Cleveland Medical Devices from having their patents scrutinized, but refused to do so for Vermeer Manufacturing Co.
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June 11, 2025
RFK Jr. Picks Vaccine Critics As Part Of CDC Panel Overhaul
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced Wednesday he appointed eight new members to a vaccine advisory panel, just two days after he removed 17 existing members of the panel, which provides advice and guidance on the use of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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June 11, 2025
IP, Health Law Scholars Object To 23andMe Ch. 11 Data Sale
A number of university scholars urged a Missouri bankruptcy judge to require that DNA testing company 23andMe Holding Co.'s asset sale be contingent on the final buyer maintaining policies that benefit biomedical researchers.
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June 11, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB Invalidation Of Agilent CRISPR Patents
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday affirmed Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions finding every claim invalid in two Agilent Technologies patents on the gene-editing tool CRISPR, sealing a win for Synthego Corp., which has been accused of infringing them.
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June 11, 2025
PepGen Faces Investor Suit Over Muscular Dystrophy Drug
Clinical-stage biotech company PepGen Inc. has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging it misled investors about the efficacy and commercial prospects of its muscular dystrophy drug, causing share price declines as investors learned of the drug's clinical trials' shortcomings.
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June 11, 2025
These Firms Are Landing The Most Patent Litigation Work
Rabicoff Law LLC reclaimed its status as the most active firm for patent plaintiffs, having filed more than twice as many cases in 2024 as it did in 2023, according to a new report from Lex Machina.
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June 11, 2025
New Patent Cases Rebound As EDTX Seals Top Venue Spot
The number of new patent suits filed in 2024 increased 22.2% over 2023, bouncing back from a historically slow year, and the Eastern District of Texas further cemented its status as the most popular patent venue after a rule change made another Texas district less attractive to plaintiffs.
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June 11, 2025
Vedder Price Boosts IP, Exec Compensation Teams In NY
Vedder Price PC has bulked up its New York office with the addition of an intellectual property attorney from Vinson & Elkins LLP and an executive compensation and employee benefits pro from Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.
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June 11, 2025
J&J's Beasley Allen DQ Bid Based On 'Innuendo,' Court Told
A California couple ripped Johnson & Johnson's renewed bid to block two Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys from representing them in their suit accusing the company of selling carcinogenic talc-based baby powder, arguing the company's opposition is based largely on "innuendo" rather than proof of misconduct by the lawyers.
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June 10, 2025
Stewart's Newest Discretionary Denial Has Attys On Edge
The acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's decision on Friday to reject patent challenges due to the petitioner's long-standing knowledge of a patent has many attorneys bracing for either a massive rise or dip in Patent Trial and Appeal Board filings.
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June 10, 2025
States Sue To Block 23andMe From Selling DNA Data In Ch. 11
A bipartisan coalition of 28 attorneys general has sued 23andMe Inc. in Missouri bankruptcy court seeking to block the genetic-testing company from auctioning off its 15 million customers' personal genetic information without their explicit consent in its ongoing Chapter 11 proceeding.
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June 10, 2025
IT Co. Urges 1st Circ. To Affirm It's Blameless For Data Breach
An information security technology company urged the First Circuit on Tuesday to affirm that it isn't liable for a 2018 data breach that exposed confidential information of more than 277,000 of the medical device maker's patients, arguing that the insurer assignee of the device maker had no valid points.
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June 10, 2025
Ill. Judge Questions Standing In Biogen Antitrust Suit
An Illinois federal judge seemed skeptical Tuesday that health benefit plans accusing Biogen of impairing competition for its multiple sclerosis drug, Tecfidera, have standing to bring their lawsuit under decades-old precedent allowing only direct purchasers to recoup damages.
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June 10, 2025
Ala. Judge Orders Trans Health Org. To Publish Training Vids
In a case challenging Alabama's ban on gender-affirming care for youths, a federal judge this week ordered a trans health organization to publish video recordings of the group's conferences and a medical training course, after the group had sought to protect the content's confidentiality.
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June 10, 2025
House 23andMe Hearing Raises National Security Concerns
Lawmakers pressed current and former 23andMe executives during a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday over national security and consumer privacy in connection with a planned Chapter 11 sale of 15 million customers' DNA profiles.
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June 10, 2025
Dog Owner Defends Tick Meds Suit Against Elanco, Retailers
A consumer plaintiff has urged an Indiana federal judge not to dismiss her proposed class action accusing Elanco Animal Health Inc. of paying off alleged co-conspirators Chewy, Petco, PetMed Express, PetSmart and PetSense to not carry cheaper generative alternatives to the Advantix topical flea and tick pet prevention drugs.
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June 10, 2025
Healthcare, Tech-Focused SPAC Prices $220M IPO
Special purpose acquisition company Blue Water Acquisition Corp. III began trading on the Nasdaq on Tuesday after pricing its $220 million initial public offering.
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June 10, 2025
Most M&A Dealmakers Are Targeting AI Acquisitions
Corporate and private equity dealmakers are rapidly integrating artificial intelligence into their mergers and acquisitions strategies, with 51% having acquired an AI business and 46% planning to do so soon, according to a new Norton Rose Fulbright report.
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June 10, 2025
Ayahuasca Church Brings Religious Use Case To DC Circ.
An Iowa church that seeks to use a psychedelic drug in its rites filed a petition Monday with the D.C. Circuit seeking to compel federal drug enforcers to process an application for a religious exemption to the Controlled Substances Act, which has been pending for over six years.
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June 10, 2025
Merck Gets PTAB To Nix Johns Hopkins Cancer Drug Patent
Merck & Co. Inc. subsidiary Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC has notched a win at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in its disagreement with Johns Hopkins University over a cancer research partnership, persuading a panel to invalidate claims in a university-owned patent relating to a colorectal cancer treatment.
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June 10, 2025
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Delaware's Court of Chancery showed new resistance to suits alleging corporate weaponizing of advance notice bylaws, and a new report highlighted the high fees that attorneys are cashing in on in Delaware courts compared to the federal court system. Several new suits were also filed concerning allegedly under- or overvalued sales and acquisitions being pushed through.
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June 10, 2025
Neurocrine Loses Suit Challenging Hormone Treatment Patent
Neurocrine Biosciences has lost its attempt in Delaware federal court to invalidate a patent owned by biotechnology company Spruce Biosciences Inc. relating to the treatment of a hormonal disorder, after a federal judge tossed the lawsuit.
Expert Analysis
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4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy
This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.
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A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.
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Preparing For Disruptions To Life Sciences Supply Chains
Life sciences companies must assess how new and escalating tariffs — combined with other restrictions on cross-border activity singling out pharmaceutical products and medical devices — will affect supply chains, and they should proactively prepare for antitrust and foreign direct investment regulatory review processes, say attorneys at Weil.
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Mastering The Fundamentals Of Life Sciences Due Diligence
As life sciences transactions continue to gain tremendous momentum, companies participating in these transactions must conduct effective and strategic regulatory due diligence, which involves extensive amounts of information and varies by manifold factors, says Anna Zhao at GunnerCooke.
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Beware Risks Of Arguing Multiple Constructions In IP Cases
Defendants accused of patent infringement often argue for different, potentially contradictory, claim constructions before district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, but the board may be clamping down on this strategy, say attorneys at Dechert.
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What's At Stake In High Court Transgender Care Suit
The outcome of U.S. v. Skrmetti will have critical implications for the rights of transgender youth and their access to gender-affirming care, and will likely affect other areas of law and policy involving transgender individuals, including education, employment, healthcare and civil rights, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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6th Circ. Ruling Paves Path Out Of Loper Bright 'Twilight Zone'
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright ruling created a twilight zone between express statutory delegations that trigger agency deference and implicit ones that do not, but the Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in Moctezuma-Reyes v. Garland crafted a two-part test for resolving cases within this gray area, say attorneys at Wiley.
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A Reminder On Avoiding Improper Venues In Patent Cases
A Texas federal court's recent decision in the Symbology and Quantum cases shows that baseless patent venue allegations may be subject to serious Rule 11 sanctions, providing venue-vetting takeaways for plaintiffs and defendants, say attorneys at Bond Schoeneck.
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NIH Cuts To Indirect Costs May Stifle IP Generation
Although currently blocked by a preliminary injunction, the National Institutes of Health's new policy to cut down on indirect cost funding creates challenges for university research projects, and may hamper the development of intellectual property — which is considered an indirect cost — for years to come, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.
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Recent Cases Clarify FCA Kickback Pleading Standards
Two recently resolved cases involving pharmaceutical manufacturers may make it more difficult for False Claims Act defendants facing kickback scheme allegations to get claims dismissed for lack of evidence, say Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz, Ellen London at London & Noar, and Gregg Shapiro at Gregg Shapiro Law.
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Opinion
Antitrust Analysis In Iowa Pathologist Case Misses The Mark
An Iowa federal court erred in its recent decision in Goldfinch Laboratory v. Iowa Pathology Associates by focusing exclusively on market impacts and sidestepping key questions that should be central to antitrust standing analysis, says Daniel Graulich at Baker McKenzie.
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Opinion
State FCAs Should Cover Local Fund Misuse, State Tax Fraud
New Jersey and other states with similar False Claims Acts should amend them to cover misappropriated municipal funding, and state and local tax fraud, which would encourage more whistleblowers to come forward and increase their recoveries, says Kenneth Levine at Stone & Magnanini.
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7 Tips For Associates To Thrive In Hybrid Work Environments
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
As the vast majority of law firms have embraced some type of hybrid work policy, associates should consider a few strategies to get the most out of both their in-person and remote workdays, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.
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Series
Playing Beach Volleyball Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My commitment to beach volleyball has become integral to my performance as an attorney, with the sport continually reminding me that teamwork, perseverance, professionalism and stress management are essential to both undertakings, says Amy Drushal at Trenam.
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What To Expect From 'Make America Healthy Again' Actions
The Make America Healthy Again Commission recently established by President Donald Trump and chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will potentially bring energy and attention to important public health topics, and stakeholders should be aware of pathways for sharing their input and proactively informing proceedings, says Nicholas Manetto at Faegre Drinker.