Life Sciences

  • April 05, 2024

    Jury Finds Pharma Exec 'Shadow Traded' With Inside Info

    A California federal jury found Friday that a former Medivation executive is liable for using inside information from his company when he purchased stock in rival pharmaceutical maker Incyte, in a novel civil "shadow trading" case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • April 05, 2024

    New Chancery Challenge Launched To Board-Investor Pacts

    A biopharmaceutical company stockholder has teed up a new Delaware Chancery Court suit challenging board-investor voting agreements, with the complaint acknowledging wide debate over the pacts and a fast-moving push to amend state corporation law to authorize them.

  • April 05, 2024

    Mo. High Court Affirms Co.'s Medical Pot License Denial

    The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the denial of a company's application for a medical marijuana cultivation facility license, finding that its submission missed the mark by not including a certificate of good standing from the secretary of state.

  • April 05, 2024

    Gunderson, Sidley Steer Biotech's Scaled-Down $110M IPO

    San Diego, California-based biotech Contineum Therapeutics began trading its shares publicly on Friday after raising $110 million in its scaled-down initial public offering.

  • April 05, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen the BBC sued by former Georgian defense minister David Kezerashvili, Russian businessman Ildar Sharipov file a defamation claim against the publisher of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, MEX Group Worldwide sue Barclays and NatWest, and a climbing gear company hit retailer Next with a claim of copyright infringement. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • April 05, 2024

    Freshfields Reps J&J On $13.1B Deal For Shockwave Medical

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer-led Johnson & Johnson has agreed to buy Fenwick & West-advised Shockwave Medical Inc., a provider of a cardiovascular blood flow treatment, at an enterprise value of $13.1 billion, the companies said Friday. 

  • April 04, 2024

    SEC Points Jury To 'Coincidence' In Shadow Trading Trial

    A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney on Thursday cross-examined a former executive of pharmaceutical company Medivation about his alleged "shadow trading" in the stock of rival pharma company Incyte, pressing the executive repeatedly to assert that various facts and circumstances supporting the agency's position were merely "coincidence."

  • April 04, 2024

    Tribes And McKinsey Take Final Step In $39.5M Opioid Deal

    A California judge signed off Thursday on the completion of a $39.5 million nationwide settlement deal that resolves all opioids litigation brought by federally recognized tribes against McKinsey & Co.

  • April 04, 2024

    NY AG Asked To Weigh In On Multiple Sclerosis Drug Fight

    The Federal Circuit is asking New York Attorney General Letitia James to weigh in on a patent dispute over a multiple sclerosis drug after it emerged that Acorda Therapeutics' challenge to an underlying arbitral award raises questions about the constitutionality of New York's voluntary payment doctrine.

  • April 04, 2024

    Latham Led Firms In 1st Quarter IPOs As Outlook Brightens

    Latham & Watkins LLP guided the most initial public offerings among law firms in the year's first quarter, benefiting from an improved fundraising climate that is spreading optimism for IPO lawyers at many firms as the second quarter unfolds.

  • April 04, 2024

    Microsoft Unit Gets Fed. Circ. Alice Win On Imaging Patents

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday gave a win to a software company acquired by Microsoft for nearly $20 billion, affirming a decision that claims in four medical imaging patents it was accused of infringing are invalid for claiming only an abstract idea.

  • April 04, 2024

    Novo Holdings, Catalent Reset Review Clock On $16.5B Deal

    Novo Nordisk Foundation has given the Federal Trade Commission more time for an initial review of Novo Holdings' plan to acquire Catalent in a deal that values the pharmaceutical services company at $16.5 billion.

  • April 04, 2024

    Structure Defense Remains In FTC Hospital Case, But Not Hearing

    When the Federal Trade Commission goes to trial April 29 against an allegedly anti-competitive hospital merger, the agency won't have to contend with defense assertions that its structure is unconstitutional right away, but a North Carolina federal judge refused Thursday to scrub them entirely.

  • April 04, 2024

    Nurses Want To Merge DaVita Wage Suits Over Unpaid Breaks

    Workers suing kidney care giant DaVita Inc. have asked a Colorado federal judge to consolidate two similar collective actions alleging they were denied wages for work performed during meal and rest breaks, saying overlap between the cases is "inevitable."

  • April 04, 2024

    Higher Ed Groups Warn Of 'Radical Shift' In Suicide Liability

    Four colleges and a slew of higher education advocacy groups have urged the Eleventh Circuit to reject an argument that Atlanta's Emory University should be liable for the suicide of a student, warning that a ruling against the school could bring about a "radical shift" in the university-student relationship.

  • April 04, 2024

    UK Billionaire Lewis Avoids Prison For Insider Trading

    A New York federal judge on Thursday sentenced British billionaire Joe Lewis to three years of probation for feeding his girlfriend and private-jet pilots nonpublic stock tips about his private equity firm's portfolio companies, saying a prison term would put the 87-year-old at "serious risk" of death.

  • April 04, 2024

    Squire Patton Adds Polsinelli Enviro Atty Pair In Denver

    Squire Patton Boggs LLP announced Thursday that it had added two former Polsinelli PC attorneys to its global environmental, safety and health practice.

  • April 04, 2024

    Boston Scientific's $3.7B Axonics Buy Under FTC Microscope

    Biomedical engineering company Boston Scientific Corp. on Thursday disclosed that the Federal Trade Commission requested more information on its planned $3.7 billion acquisition of medical technology company Axonics, which will result in a delay in the deal's closing.

  • April 04, 2024

    Kirkland-Led SK Capital Raises $2.95B For 6th PE Fund

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised private equity shop SK Capital Partners LP announced Thursday that it closed the latest vintage of its flagship private investment strategy after securing $2.95 billion of capital commitments.

  • April 03, 2024

    Sanofi Plans To Settle 4,000 Zantac Cancer Claims

    Sanofi said Wednesday that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle about 4,000 personal injury claims linking the discontinued heartburn drug Zantac to cancer.

  • April 03, 2024

    Accused 'Shadow Trader' Takes Stand To Slam SEC's Case

    A former Medivation executive accused of "shadow trading" when he purchased stock in rival Incyte testified in his California federal civil trial Wednesday that he didn't base that decision on confidential information, and he didn't think even "for one second" that he was violating securities laws.

  • April 03, 2024

    Microsoft Notches Fed. Circ. Win In 3D Imaging Patent Fight

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday backed a ruling from an administrative tribunal that wiped out most of a patent issued to a Florida radiologist and his ex-Lockheed Martin business partner, whose company is suing Microsoft over its line of HoloLens AR headsets.

  • April 03, 2024

    UK Billionaire Lewis Agrees To $1.64M Insider Trading Penalty

    British billionaire Joseph Lewis has agreed to pay $1.64 million to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's civil claims he fed confidential tips to his personal pilots and then-girlfriend after pleading guilty to related criminal charges earlier this year.

  • April 03, 2024

    Philly Injection Site Org. Isn't Religious, Judge Rules

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday ruled that an overdose prevention organization planning to open a supervised safe-injection site in Philadelphia is not a religious entity, delivering a win to the U.S. Department of Justice, which opposed the site.

  • April 03, 2024

    Sen. Durbin Urged To Pass Legislation To Curb Judge Shopping

    A coalition of more than 20 organizations have called on Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to curtail the use of judge shopping through legislation and oversight because they believe more is needed beyond the Judicial Conference of the United States' latest action to curb "right wing" influence over the courts. 

Expert Analysis

  • Understanding Discovery Obligations In Era Of Generative AI

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Attorneys and businesses must adapt to the unique discovery challenges presented by generative artificial intelligence, such as chatbot content and prompts, while upholding the principles of fairness, transparency and compliance with legal obligations in federal civil litigation, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • Kochava Ruling May Hint At Next Privacy Class Action Wave

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    The Southern District of California's recent ruling in Greenley v. Kochava and increasing complaints alleging that a consumer website is an illegal “pen register” due to the use of third-party marketing software tools foreshadow a new theory of liability for plaintiffs in privacy litigation, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Forecasting The Impact Of High Court Debit Card Rule Case

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    John Delionado and Aidan Gross at Hunton consider how the U.S. Supreme Court's forthcoming ruling in a retailer's suit challenging a Federal Reserve rule on debit card swipe fees could affect agency regulations both new and old, as well as the businesses that might seek to challenge them.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: Mexico

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    ESG has yet to become part of the DNA of the Mexican business model, but huge strides are being made in that direction, as more stakeholders demand that companies adopt, at the least, a modicum of sustainability commitments and demonstrate how they will meet them, says Carlos Escoto at Galicia Abogados.

  • Opinion

    FDA And Companies Must Move Quickly On Drug Recalls

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    When a drug doesn't work as promised — whether it causes harm, like eyedrops recalled last month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or is merely useless, like a widely used decongestant ingredient recently acknowledged by the agency to be ineffective — the public must be notified in a timely manner, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.

  • The Case For Post-Bar Clerk Training Programs At Law Firms

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    In today's competitive legal hiring market, an intentionally designed training program for law school graduates awaiting bar admission can be an effective way of creating a pipeline of qualified candidates, says Brent Daub at Gilson Daub.

  • Opinion

    A Telecom Attorney's Defense Of The Chevron Doctrine

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    The Chevron doctrine, which requires judicial deference to federal regulators, is under attack in two U.S. Supreme Court cases — and while most telecom attorneys likely agree that the Federal Communications Commission is guilty of overrelying on it, the problem is not the doctrine itself, says Carl Northrop at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • What's At Stake In Bystolic 'Side Deals' Litigation

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    In re: Bystolic Antitrust Litigation, which has oral argument set for next month, will likely shed light on how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit views side deals, and could create a circuit split in pleading standards for reverse payment cases, say attorneys at Axinn.

  • 2 HHS Warnings Highlight Anti-Kickback Risks For Physicians

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    Two recent advisory opinions issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General involve different scenarios and rationales, but together they illustrate the OIG's focus on and disapproval of contractual joint ventures and other revenue-maximizing physician arrangements, say Robert Threlkeld and Elliott Coward at Morris Manning.

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Cross-Market Implications In FTC's Anesthesia Complaint

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent complaint against a private equity firm's acquisition of anesthesiology practices highlights the controversial issue of cross-market harm in health care provider mergers, and could provide important insights into how a court may view such theories of harm, say Christopher Lau and Dina Older Aguilar at Cornerstone Research.

  • FTC Orange Book Move Signals New Pharma Patent Scrutiny

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent dispute against improper listing of drug patents in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book indicates heightened surveillance of the pharmaceutical industry, particularly where competition-related consequences of patent or regulatory processes are concerned, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • How Legal Teams Can Prep For Life Sciences' Tech Revolution

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    The life sciences and health care industries are uniquely positioned to take advantage of new efficiencies created by cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence, but the sensitivity of their data also demands careful navigation of an expanding legislative and regulatory landscape, say Kristi Gedid, Zack Laplante and Lisa LaMotta at Ernst & Young.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

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