Life Sciences

  • September 25, 2024

    NJ Pharmacy Execs Cop To $33M Kickback Scheme

    Two men who ran a New Jersey mail-order pharmacy admitted their roles in a $33 million medication kickback scheme, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced Wednesday.

  • September 25, 2024

    Wyden Pitches New Bill To Regulate Intoxicating Hemp

    U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a new bill on Wednesday to more tightly regulate products with hemp-derived cannabinoids, with an emphasis on age gating, manufacturing standards and labeling requirements.

  • September 25, 2024

    DC Circ. Judges Ask If It's Too Late To Fast-Track Gastro Drug

    A panel of D.C. Circuit judges grilled an attorney for Vanda Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday over claims Vanda's gastroparesis drug was improperly denied fast-track designation by the Food and Drug Administration, questioning why the company declined to complete animal toxicological studies even after the FDA paused the drug's human trials.

  • September 25, 2024

    Expect More R&D Guidance Before Regs, IRS Atty Says

    The Internal Revenue Service plans to release more guidance governing the tax treatment of research and development expenses before it formally issues proposed regulations that implement the 2017 federal tax law's changes to the incentive, an agency attorney said Wednesday.

  • September 25, 2024

    Cancer Detection Biz To Go Public Via $694M SPAC Merger

    Special purpose acquisition company Breeze Holdings Acquisition Corp. on Wednesday announced that it has agreed to merge with and take public clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company YD Biopharma Ltd. in a deal that gives the combined company an estimated enterprise value of $694 million and was built by three firms.

  • September 25, 2024

    AmerisourceBergen Can't Escape Workers' 401(k) Fee Suit

    AmerisourceBergen Corp. can't escape a proposed class action alleging it allowed its employee 401(k) plan to be saddled with excessive recordkeeping costs, a Kentucky federal judge ruled, saying the workers' claims and calculations were detailed enough to move forward.

  • September 24, 2024

    Google Can't Ditch Privacy Suit Over Period App Data Sharing

    A California federal judge has refused to release Google from a proposed class action alleging the company used a data analytics tool to wrongfully retrieve data from menstruation tracking app Flo, rejecting the tech giant's arguments that the plaintiffs lacked standing and had consented to the disclosures. 

  • September 24, 2024

    Biotech RenovaCare Investors Seek OK Of $2M Deal

    Biotechnology company RenovaCare Inc. has reached a $2 million deal to end a consolidated proposed class action alleging it pumped its stock prices by using a secret paid promotional campaign, the company's investors have told a New Jersey federal judge.

  • September 24, 2024

    P&G Says FDA Review Moots Class Suit Over Lead In Tampons

    Since the FDA has announced it will be looking into claims that commercially available tampons contain harmful levels of heavy metals, Tampax owner Procter & Gamble believes it shouldn't have to keep fighting a proposed California federal class action targeting alleged lead levels in its own products.

  • September 24, 2024

    Philips Must Face Investor Suit Over FDA Compliance Issues

    Health technology company Koninklijke Philips and its former CEO cannot escape a suit accusing them of misleading investors about the safety and compliance of its subsidiary's sleep and respiratory care products, which were recalled in 2021, but its chief financial officer and a former CEO of a Philips subsidiary were allowed to exit the case for good.

  • September 24, 2024

    Buyers Seek $97M Fees From $335M Drug Price-Fixing Deals

    A class of direct purchaser plaintiffs in the multidistrict antitrust litigation over generic drug pricing asked a Pennsylvania federal judge Monday to award them $97 million in fees across six settlements with pharmaceutical firms, arguing its attorneys "spent the better part of a decade and hundreds of thousands of hours litigating this case."

  • September 24, 2024

    Novo Nordisk Tells Sens. Ozempic Costs Are Linked To PBMs

    Novo Nordisk's CEO argued Tuesday that the high prices of the company's diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy primarily stem from the actions of pharmacy benefit managers, earning support from many members of a Senate committee and frustrating others who wanted more direct answers on the Danish drugmaker's own responsibilities.

  • September 24, 2024

    Trio Used Penny Stock Co. For Wide-Ranging Fraud, SEC Says

    A trio of defendants faces U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations they orchestrated a wide-ranging investment scheme to illegally profit off of a purported solar company and bogus claims about a rapid COVID-19 test, targeting investors and even the company's own transfer agent to enrich themselves.

  • September 24, 2024

    Moderna Execs Hyped Ineffective RSV Vax, Suit Says

    Officers and directors of Moderna misled investors about the efficacy of its RSV vaccine, causing share prices to dive when it was revealed in June to have only about a 50% efficacy rate after 18 months, a new shareholder suit alleges.

  • September 24, 2024

    Firms Allowed To Exit IP Case After Gaining Philips' Consent

    A North Carolina federal judge allowed Dentons and Morningstar Law Group to withdraw as Transtate Equipment Co. Inc.'s counsel in a copyright and unfair competition case, after a stipulation was struck with opposing attorneys representing a Dutch health technology conglomerate that initially scoffed at the request.

  • September 24, 2024

    8th Circ. Won't Revive Pot Shop's Discrimination Suit

    The Eighth Circuit won't reinstate discrimination and interference claims by a would-be cannabis distributor against a firm contracted to evaluate applicants for Arkansas' dispensary licenses, saying the complaint lacks specificity to support its claims.

  • September 24, 2024

    NJ Judge Leaves J&J Ch. 11 Venue Change To Texas Judge

    A New Jersey bankruptcy judge on Tuesday declined the U.S. trustee's request to move Johnson & Johnson's latest talc-unit Chapter 11 from Texas to the Garden State, saying the issue could be as ably decided by a Texas court while avoiding a thorny issue of authority.

  • September 23, 2024

    J&J Talc Claims Paused In Latest Spinoff Ch. 11

    A Texas bankruptcy judge Monday froze certain talc personal injury litigation against Johnson & Johnson, saying a three-week administrative stay will give the court time to decide key jurisdictional issues in the Chapter 11 case of Red River Talc LLC, a newly created J&J spinoff and the pharmaceutical and cosmetics giant's latest attempt to settle claims in bankruptcy that its baby powder caused cancer.

  • September 23, 2024

    Mallinckrodt Brass Can't Avoid Investor Suit Over 2nd Ch. 11

    A New Jersey federal judge ruled Monday that senior leaders of drugmaker Mallinckrodt cannot escape a lawsuit brought by shareholders alleging the company tricked them into thinking it had recovered from bankruptcy and would make a $200 million payment to opioid claimants, finding the investors sufficiently pleaded securities law violations.

  • September 23, 2024

    Bio Lab Settles Conn. False-Claims Allegations For $1.73M

    Enzo Biochem Inc. and subsidiary Enzo Clinical Labs Inc. will pay nearly $1.73 million to settle accusations that the companies' former Farmingdale, New York, laboratory billed higher rates to the state of Connecticut's Medicaid coffers than it billed to other payers, the state attorney general announced Monday.

  • September 23, 2024

    Fired Sotera Exec's Vesting Suit Goes Forward In Del.

    Delaware's Court of Chancery dismissed on Monday some claims in a former Sotera Health Co. executive's suit accusing the lab-testing and sterilization firm of wrongly refusing to grant him severance benefits and equity awards worth millions, while holding other claims for trial.

  • September 23, 2024

    GSK Claims Pfizer Hasn't Proven Misconduct In Vax IP Fight

    GlaxoSmithKline is urging a Delaware federal judge to block Pfizer and BioNTech's claims that it has misused its patents tied to COVID-19 vaccination technology, or that it and a predecessor acted inappropriately when applying for those patents.

  • September 23, 2024

    Fed. Circ. OKs Novartis Loss In Eye Syringe Patent Feud

    The Federal Circuit has backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that more than two dozen claims in a Novartis pre-filled eye injection syringe patent weren't patentable.

  • September 23, 2024

    Amneal Latest Generic EpiPen Maker To Fight Colo. Law

    Amneal Pharmaceuticals has sued Colorado in federal court alleging that a state drug affordability program resulted in unconstitutional takings of its generic epinephrine auto-injectors.

  • September 23, 2024

    Cancer Test Cos. Strike Deal For Partial End To Patent Row

    Natera Inc. and Neogenomics Laboratories Inc. said they reached a confidential yet partial settlement Friday in their dispute covering intellectual property for a Natera DNA test meant to detect cancer.

Expert Analysis

  • Regulating Resurrected Species Under The ESA

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    As the prospect of extinct species being resurrected from DNA and reintroduced into the wild grows closer, an analysis of the Endangered Species Act suggests that it could provide a thoughtful, flexible governance framework for such scenarios, say Caroline Meadows and Shelby Bobosky at the SMU Dedman School of Law.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking

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    With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 5 Takeaways From FDA's Biosimilars Promotion Guidance

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expands upon other recent efforts to clarify expectations for biosimilar and interchangeable labeling, highlighting a number of potential missteps that could draw attention from regulators, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Dual-Track IPO-M&A Exit Strategies For Life Science Cos.

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    A dual-track process for life sciences companies offers a proven path to securing favorable deal terms for an exit, and strategic moves can include running a crossover financing round in the lead-up, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Are Concessions In FDA's Lab-Developed Tests Rule Enough?

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    Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new policy for laboratory-developed tests included major strategic concessions to help balance patient safety, access and diagnostic innovation, the new rule may well face significant legal challenges in court, say Dominick DiSabatino and Audrey Mercer at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Rebuttal

    Double-Patenting Ruling Shows Terminal Disclaimers' Value

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    While a recent Law360 guest article seems to argue that the Federal Circuit’s Cellect decision last year robs patent owners of lawful patent term, the ruling actually identifies how terminal disclaimers are the solution to the problem of obviousness-type double patenting, say Jane Love and Robert Trenchard at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Mid-2024 FCA Enforcement And Litigation Trends To Watch

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    Reviewing notable False Claims Act trends and enforcement efforts in the last year and a half reveals that healthcare is a key enforcement priority for the U.S. Department of Justice, and the road ahead may bring clarification on Anti-Kickback Statute causation and willfulness standards, along with increased focus on private equity, cybersecurity and self-disclosure, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

  • What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

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    With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

  • Why High Court May Have Rejected IP Obviousness Appeal

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    Attorneys at Womble Bond analyze possible reasons the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Vanda Pharmaceuticals' request to review the Federal Circuit’s reasonable expectation of success standard for determining obviousness, including that the court was unpersuaded by the company's argument that Amgen v. Sanofi places a bind on drug developers.

  • Microplastics At The Crossroads Of Regulation And Litigation

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    Though there are currently not many federal regulations specifically addressing microplastics as pollutants, regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits asserting consumer protection claims are both on the rise, and manufacturers should take proactive steps to implement preventive measures accordingly, say Aliza Karetnick and Franco Corrado at Morgan Lewis.

  • The Fed. Circ. In April: Hurdles Remain For Generics

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent Salix v. Norwich ruling — where Salix's brand-name drug's patents were invalidated — is a reminder to patent practitioners that invalidating a competitor's patents may not guarantee abbreviated new drug application approval, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.

  • Tylenol MDL Highlights Expert Admissibility Headaches

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    A New York federal court's decision to exclude all plaintiff experts in a multidistrict litigation concerning prenatal exposure to Tylenol highlights a number of expert testimony pitfalls that parties should avoid in product liability and mass tort matters, say Rand Brothers and Courtney Block at Winston & Strawn.

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