'Forum Shopping' Center Stage At 6th Circ. Drug Pricing Args

By Jeff Overley

As part of an expansive effort to tee up U.S. Supreme Court review, pharmaceutical industry-backed opponents of Medicare's drug price negotiations entered less-than-hospitable territory at the Sixth Circuit, where judges pointedly questioned a local business group's basis for challenging a national healthcare program.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

23andMe Ombudsman Not Confident Sale Is Lawful

By Ben Zigterman

The privacy expert probing 23andMe's proposed sale of customers' genetic data in bankruptcy told a Missouri federal judge Wednesday that he couldn't determine the deal wouldn't violate state privacy laws and recommended the company be required to obtain consent from its customers before handing over the data.

Report attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Chancery Tags AstraZeneca Unit For $180M 'Expectation' Loss

By Jeff Montgomery

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.

Decision attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Florida, Sandoz Say They've Fixed Generic Drug Price-Fix Deal

By Matthew Perlman

The Florida Attorney General's Office and Sandoz Inc. have told a Connecticut federal court they've fixed the problems the court identified with a generic drug price-fixing settlement after other states with claims in the case objected to a clause in the deal.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Rising PTAB Filings Follow Surge In Patent Cases

By Theresa Schliep

The number of petitions filed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ticked up last year, following a similar increase in federal court litigation and suggesting that activity at the board has somewhat stabilized, according to a new report.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

These Firms Are Landing The Most PTAB Work

By Theresa Schliep

Intellectual property powerhouse Fish & Richardson again secured the top spot on a list of firms appearing in the most trials over the past three years in front of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Judiciary Committee Clears Squires For Full Senate Vote

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved former Goldman Sachs intellectual property attorney John Squires to serve as U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director on Thursday, putting his nomination in the hands of the full Senate.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Holmes Seeks 2 Year Cut, Commits To Criminal Justice Work

By Hailey Konnath

Elizabeth Holmes has asked a California federal judge to knock two years off her 11-year prison sentence, arguing she's eligible for the adjustment under sentencing guidelines and has spent her time behind bars tutoring and advocating for her fellow prisoners.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Harvard Researcher Held By ICE Over Specimens Released

By Julie Manganis

A Harvard Medical School researcher and Russian national who has been detained by U.S. immigration authorities since February, when frog embryo specimens were found in her luggage at Logan Airport, was released from custody Thursday while she awaits trial on a smuggling charge.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

8th Circ. Upholds Block On Minn. Generic-Drug Price Law

By Lauren Berg

The Eighth Circuit on Thursday backed a lower court's preliminary injunction blocking a Minnesota law that prohibits pharmaceutical manufacturers from imposing an "excessive" price increase on generic or biosimilar drugs, agreeing that the law is likely unconstitutional in regulating prices charged nationwide.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

8th Circ. Stubs Out Challenge To FDA Menthol Vape Denial

By Mike Curley

The Eighth Circuit on Thursday threw out a challenge from SWT Global Supply Inc. to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's denial of its application to market menthol-flavored e-cigarettes, saying the agency didn't arbitrarily or capriciously find that the company's sales plan failed to meet its standards for promoting public health.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Roundup Plaintiffs' Rip Of Expert Was Off Base, Jury Hears

By Cara Salvatore

A Missouri jury weighing a Roundup cancer case heard expert testimony Thursday that plaintiffs offered a "remarkable mischaracterization" of a defense expert witness on cancer causation when they said in openings that he was "discredited."

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

USPTO Tells Fed. Circ. Not To Review Ruling In Xencor Case

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has found that the full Federal Circuit doesn't need to review a decision rejecting Xencor Inc.'s application for an antibody patent, saying that a panel of the appellate court applied the right standard.

Response attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

GlaxoSmithKline Settles Conn. Generic Zantac Suits

By Aaron Keller

GlaxoSmithKline on Thursday agreed to settle two Connecticut lawsuits, one by seven plaintiffs and the other by 11, that claimed generic forms of the brand name heartburn and acid reflux drug Zantac degraded into a substance that caused cancer.

Settlement attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

5 Firms Guide $1.25B BioNTech, CureVac Oncology Deal

By Al Barbarino

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. 

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Fla.-Based Med Spa Chain Files For Ch. 11 After Expansion

By Vince Sullivan

Contour Spa LLC, a Florida-based chain of fat-burning med spas, filed for Chapter 11 protection after a rapid expansion and a sprawling and decentralized operational system led to financial challenges that ate into revenues.

Declaration attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Greenberg Traurig Adds IP Atty From Kilpatrick In NY

By Christine DeRosa

Greenberg Traurig LLP has boosted its intellectual property offerings in New York with the addition of an experienced litigator from Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

5 Open Questions About FDA's AI-Assisted Review Plans

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently touted the completion of a generative artificial intelligence program for scientific reviewers and plans for agencywide deployment to speed up reviews of premarket applications, but there is considerable uncertainty surrounding the tools' ability to protect trade secrets, avoid bias and more, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Prospects And Challenges For Expert Evidence At The UPC

Expert testimony on economic or damages-related issues will likely play a larger part in Unified Patent Court proceedings in the near future, potentially presenting unique challenges for experts, counsel and judges alike, say analysts at Charles River.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Attacks On Judicial Independence Tend To Manifest In 3 Ways

Attacks on judicial independence now run the gamut from gross (bald-faced interference) to systemic (structural changes) to insidious (efforts to undermine public trust), so lawyers, judges and the public must recognize the fateful moment in which we live and defend the rule of law every day, says Jim Moliterno at Washington and Lee University.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Mass. Judge, On Stand, Denies Helping Immigrant Evade ICE

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts judge accused of approving a plan to let a man elude immigration officers by letting him leave the court through a back door seven years ago testified Thursday that was not her intent when she granted a request to let him speak with an attorney in a courthouse lockup.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump's Deployment Of National Guard Illegal, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge on Thursday granted California's request for a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump's order sending the National Guard into Los Angeles, calling the president's actions "illegal" and unconstitutional, but the decision was quickly paused by the Ninth Circuit.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Google Fights MDL Plaintiffs' Sanctions Bid Over Lost Chats

By Emily Sawicki

Google is pushing back on a request for sanctions that a slew of advertisers and publishers have brought in their antitrust lawsuit over the company's advertising placement technology, saying the plaintiffs have not shown Google hid evidence amid the "mountains" of electronically stored information it provided.

Letter attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Approach The Bench: Judge Proctor On Civility, Civil Rules

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

R. David Proctor, chief judge of the Northern District of Alabama, is a leader within the federal judiciary. He's both assigned and presided over multidistrict litigation. He may write a nationwide rule governing third-party litigation funding. And he's gained internet fame for ordering two attorneys to eat lunch together.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Avenatti Sheds 3 Years After 9th Circ. Orders Resentencing

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge on Thursday resentenced disbarred attorney Michael Avenatti to just over 11 years in federal prison for filching millions of dollars from his clients' settlement funds, reducing a 14-year sentence overturned by the Ninth Circuit and leaving Avenatti with about eight years left after time served.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Picks Proceed Despite Worry Over Honoring Court Orders

By Courtney Bublé

Two nominations for top positions in the U.S. Department of Justice were voted out of committee on party lines on Thursday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Calif. Sues Trump Over 'Wildly Partisan' EV Waiver Repeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The California attorney general and 10 other states sued the Trump administration in federal court Thursday, minutes after President Donald Trump signed resolutions repealing California's Clean Air Act waiver that allowed the state to establish its own vehicle emissions standards, slamming the resolutions as unconstitutional, irrational and "wildly partisan."

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Interview

Ex-Interior Secretary Salazar On 'Coming Home' To WilmerHale

By Aebra Coe

Former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, who served as secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Obama administration and most recently as ambassador to Mexico during the Biden administration, returned this month to WilmerHale's Denver office, which he founded in 2014.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Justices Say Habeas Claims Can't Be Added After Judgment

By Marco Poggio

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a prisoner may not add new claims to a habeas corpus petition once a final judgment is issued, cementing strict limits on repeat habeas filings prescribed by federal law.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Justices Limit FTCA Defense In FBI Raid Case

By Chart Riggall

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday held that the Constitution's supremacy clause cannot shield the federal government from Federal Tort Claims Act suits, in the process reviving a Georgia woman's claim over an FBI raid aimed at a gang member but mistakenly carried out at her home.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Weinstein Sex Abuse Trial Ends After Mixed, Partial Verdict

By Pete Brush

Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse retrial ended Thursday with a Manhattan jury failing to reach a verdict on a count alleging the movie mogul raped an actress, one day after he was convicted of forcing sex on a production assistant and cleared on a third charge.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »