Albertsons Probed On Pharmacy Compliance Staffing At Trial

By Ben Adlin

Two former Albertsons pharmacy compliance executives testified in video depositions played Tuesday before a Washington judge considering whether Albertsons failed to prevent the diversion of opioids in the state, acknowledging the nationwide compliance team consisted of just six staffers between 2015 and 2020 despite heightened scrutiny amid the opioid epidemic.

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CVS Caremark Settles Out Of FTC Suit Over Insulin Pricing

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement on Tuesday with CVS Caremark that includes a number of changes to its business practices, the second deal in a case accusing the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers of inflating insulin prices through unfair rebate schemes.

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3rd Circ. Revives Providers' Underpayment Suit Against Cigna

By Gina Kim

The Third Circuit partially revived several New Jersey-based healthcare practices' Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit alleging Cigna improperly underreimbursed them for covered healthcare services provided to Cigna's subscribers, ruling Monday the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged they were underpaid for some out-of-network services when compared to their normal charges for similar services.

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DOJ Asks 9th Circ. Undo Trans Health Ruling Against Premera

By Kellie Mejdrich

The federal government has backed Premera Blue Cross in its bid at the Ninth Circuit to overturn a Washington federal court's judgment that held the insurance company's coverage policy for gender dysphoria surgery is discriminatory, arguing the decision is out of line with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

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Clinics Want Medicaid Abortion Stay Lifted After Pa. Court Win

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Allegheny Reproductive Health Center and other healthcare providers on Tuesday asked a Commonwealth Court judge to unfreeze money for Medicaid-funded abortions in Pennsylvania following the court's landmark ruling that the state's coverage exclusions for such abortions were unconstitutional.

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Patent Eligibility Bill Divides Senators Over Health Costs

By Ryan Davis

Several U.S. senators expressed strong support at a hearing Tuesday for a bill aimed at expanding which inventions are eligible for patents, while others appeared to have reservations about the potential effect of the proposed changes on healthcare costs.

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4th Circ. Affirms Tort Atty's $25M Extortion Conviction

By Cara Salvatore

The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the conviction of a medical malpractice attorney for attempting to extort the University of Maryland Medical System out of $25 million, despite his argument that his self-representation at trial was not competent.

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'Bulletproof Hosting' Providers Indicted For Aiding Hacks

By Allison Grande

A trio of Russian nationals and the "bulletproof hosting" services they operated have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Ohio on charges that they helped facilitate cyberattacks against banks, hospitals and other critical infrastructure operators across nearly two dozen states and several countries, leading to more than $62 million in losses, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

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Brief

Medical Device Co. Settles FCA Claims

By Julie Manganis

A company that sells compression devices to reduce swelling in patients with certain medical conditions will pay $551,000 to settle allegations that it obtained Medicare reimbursement with falsified medical records, the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts announced Tuesday.

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2nd Circ. Grants Bail To Critically Ill Detainee Pending Appeal

By Tom Lotshaw

A split Second Circuit panel ordered a detained Jamaican man facing deportation to be released on bail, and criticized a dissenting judge's conclusion that the man's life-threatening kidney disease and need for regular dialysis treatments were not an "extraordinary circumstance."

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7th Circ. Says TCPA Do-Not-Call Limit Doesn't Cover Texts

By Nadia Dreid

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act's do-not-call restrictions do not apply to text messages, a Seventh Circuit panel declared Tuesday, roughly six weeks after the panel expressed skepticism during oral arguments that "telephone call" could also mean "text message."

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1st Circ. Backs CDC Ban On Importing Dogs Under 6 Months

By Carolyn Muyskens

The First Circuit has upheld a rule requiring all dogs imported into the U.S. to be at least six months of age, saying the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had shown it was a reasonable measure to fight rabies.

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Ceiling Tile Injury Suit Is Med Mal, Texas Panel Says

By Mike Curley

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a woman's suit against a hospital alleging she was injured by a falling ceiling tile while waiting to give birth, saying the fact she was in the middle of medical treatment and also sought claims for lack of follow-up treatment, means her suit is medical malpractice.

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Kroger Says Flimsy Claims Doom Tobacco Fee Suit

By Grace Elletson

Grocery giant Kroger urged an Ohio federal judge to toss a suit challenging the legality of an extra health plan fee it charged tobacco users, stating it complied with federal benefits law by giving workers a 90-day window each year to dodge the fee by enrolling in a wellness program.

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Gov't Shouldn't Face Vax Suit Targeting Moderna, Group Says

By Elliot Weld

Conservative advocacy organization Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund on Tuesday urged the Federal Circuit to reject a proposal to shift a multibillion-dollar patent infringement case over the COVID-19 vaccine that is targeting Moderna to the federal government, saying doing so would reduce the crucial economic incentives that power innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Judge Says Vanda-FDA Appointments Fight Likely Ripe

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge said he likely had jurisdiction to hear Vanda Pharmaceuticals' latest challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's structure for reviewing new drug applications, but wondered if a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision might doom the company's challenge on the merits.

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Sanofi Says Pfizer, Moderna COVID Jabs Infringe MRNA Tech

By Lauren Berg

Sanofi's pharmaceutical and therapeutics subsidiaries say the COVID-19 vaccines that have netted Pfizer and Moderna billions of dollars infringe their patents covering mRNA technology, according to a pair of lawsuits filed Tuesday in New Jersey federal court.

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AI Drug Discovery Biz Valued At $3.8B After Series C Round

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Artificial intelligence-based drug discovery company Chai Discovery on Tuesday revealed that it reached a $3.8 billion valuation after closing its latest funding round with $400 million in tow.

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States Will Get $18M From 23andMe Ch. 11 For Data Breach

By Brian Steele

A week after a bankruptcy court approved a $46.75 million settlement between the DNA testing company 23andMe and data breach claimants, a coalition of more than 40 states announced Tuesday that they would share in an additional $18 million to resolve claims of unreasonable security practices.

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BakerHostetler Flips Holland & Knight's Antitrust Co-Lead

By James Boyle

An attorney with nearly 25 years of experience in commercial and antitrust litigation has moved his practice to BakerHostetler's Philadelphia office after five years with Holland & Knight LLP.

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How Justices' TPS Ruling Affects Workforce Planning

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent holding in Mullin v. Doe that courts lack jurisdiction to review temporary protected status determinations greenlights the end of TPS for thousands of Syrian and Haitian nationals, and means employers must reevaluate TPS-designees' employability while avoiding discriminatory document practices, says attorney Richard Herman.

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Blanche Called Anti-Weaponization Fund 'Mistake,' Per Durbin

By Courtney Bublé

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday the anti-weaponization fund created as part of the president's settlement with the IRS was "a mistake," according to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., after his meeting with Blanche.

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Justices Seek More Funds Over Increased Threats, Talk Ethics

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan made rare Capitol Hill appearances Tuesday, discussing the court's budget request for fiscal 2027, the "shadow docket" and ethics issues.

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Quinn Emanuel, Spiro Ousted From CoStar Copyright Fight

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has disqualified Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and its attorney Alex Spiro from representing a commercial real estate platform in a copyright infringement suit brought by CoStar, agreeing that the firm's representation of CoStar in a different case should result in its removal from this one.

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Bronx Defenders Union OKs Strike 1 Year After Last Walkout

By Andrea Keckley

The Bronx Defenders has become the third New York City-based legal aid organization to authorize a strike this month, which comes just one year after the group's most recent walkout.

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Trump Lawyer Matthew Schwartz Confirmed To 2nd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 50-45, along party lines, on Tuesday to confirm Matthew Schwartz, one of President Donald Trump's personal attorneys and a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

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Ky. Law Prof Wants Court To Block Judge For Dean Pick

By Hailey Konnath

A University of Kentucky law professor asked a federal court to block U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove from becoming the next law school dean, claiming that the appointment has "stripped the faculty" of their credibility on the basis of peer review.

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Calif. Bar Settles With Administrators Of 'Disastrous' Bar Exam

By Andrea Keckley

The State Bar of California has reached a settlement with the administrators of its "disastrous" February 2025 bar exam, whose array of highly publicized technical glitches prevented hundreds of aspiring lawyers from completing the test.

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