Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  FTC's Report Criticizing Drug Middlemen Is Flawed

  

  The Federal Trade Commission's July report, which claims that pharmacy benefit managers are inflating drug costs, does not offer a credible analysis of PBMs, and its methodology lacks rigor, says Jay Ezrielev at Elevecon.

• Series

  Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

• Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules

  

  To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

• Navigating The Complexities Of Cyber Incident Reporting

  

  When it comes to cybersecurity incident response plans, the uptick in the number and targets of legal and regulatory actions emphasizes the necessity for businesses to document the facts underlying the assumptions, complexities and obstacles of their decisions during the incident response, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

• Takeaways From Novo Nordisk's Fight For Market Exclusivity

  

  Generic competitors’ challenge to Novo Nordisk’s patents in hopes of capturing a portion of the rapidly expanding Type 2 diabetes and obesity treatment market highlights the role of abbreviated new drug application litigation, inter partes review and multidistrict litigation in patent defense, says Pedram Sameni at Patexia.

• Secret Service Failures Offer Lessons For Private Sector GCs

  

  The Secret Service’s problematic response to two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this summer provides a crash course for general counsel on how not to handle crisis communications, says Keith Nahigian at Nahigian Strategies.

• A Primer On Navigating The Conrad 30 Immigration Program

  

  As the Conrad 30 program opens its annual window to help place immigrant physicians in medically underserved areas, employers and physicians engaged in the process must carefully understand the program's nuanced requirements, say Andrew Desposito and Greg Berk at Sheppard Mullin.

• Defending AI, Machine Learning Patents In Life Sciences

  

  Ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Alice v. CLS Bank, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology remain at risk for Alice challenges, but reviewing recent cases can help life sciences companies avoid common pitfalls and successfully defend their patents, say attorneys at Mintz.

• Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

  

  About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

• FTC Focus: How Scrutiny Of PBMs And Insulin May Play Out

  

  Should Express Scripts' recent judicial challenge to the Federal Trade Commission succeed, any new targets could add litigation and choice of forum to their playbooks, and potential FTC court action on insulin could be forced to parallel venues as the issues between the commission and PBMs evolve, say attorneys at Proskauer.

• Opinion

  AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

  

  The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

• Takeaways From Texas AG's Novel AI Health Settlement

  

  The Texas attorney general's recent action against a health tech company marks another step in rapidly proliferating enforcement against artificial intelligence and privacy issues across multiple states, and highlights important risk mitigation considerations for health companies that implement AI systems, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

• Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

  

  In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from four recent class certification rulings involving denial of Medicare reimbursements, automobile insurance disputes, veterans' rights and automobile defects.

• Proposed Legislation May Crack Down On Online Drug Ads

  

  A bill recently proposed in Congress could serve as a sea change in how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates drug-related speech, with significant trickle-down effects on various corners of not only the drug industry but also on consumers and providers themselves, say Dominick DiSabatino and Arushi Pandya at Sheppard Mullin.

• Series

  Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.