Life Sciences

  • January 07, 2025

    Robo Surgery Co. Gets Billions From Selling Parts, Jury Told

    Surgical Instrument Service accused Intuitive Surgical at the start of a federal trial Tuesday of being a monopolist making billions of dollars by blocking hospitals from extending the life of reusable surgical-robot components, while Intuitive blasted the medical instrument repair company for "trying to misuse antitrust laws to enrich itself."

  • January 07, 2025

    Alcohol Warnings Unlikely To Bring Same Fate Tobacco Faced

    The U.S. surgeon general on Friday recommended that alcohol carry warnings about cancer risks, and attorneys say that while warning labels might be warranted, alcohol is unlikely to become the next tobacco.

  • January 07, 2025

    Amneal Calls Teva's IP Delisting Panic 'Theatrical Distraction'

    The pharmaceutical industry won't fall into "chaos and disruption" if the Federal Circuit doesn't stay an injunction ordering Teva to remove inhaler patents from the Orange Book, and Teva's arguments otherwise are "a mere theatrical distraction" from the weakness of its position, according to Amneal Pharmaceuticals.

  • January 07, 2025

    New USPTO Advisers Include Mattel, Estee Lauder Attys

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday welcomed six additions to its patent and trademark advisory committees, including lead intellectual property attorneys at The Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. and Mattel Inc. 

  • January 07, 2025

    Cannabis Reformers Move To Oust DEA From Pot Hearings

    The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has worked behind the scenes to undermine an administrative process that will determine whether federal restrictions on marijuana are relaxed, a group of reformers alleged in a new filing submitted to an agency tribunal.

  • January 07, 2025

    Biotech Co. Urges NC Panel To Revive Legal Malpractice Suit

    A biotech company that lost a $22 million libel suit brought by a pharmaceutical executive has asked a North Carolina appeals panel for another shot at legal malpractice claims against its former legal counsel, arguing that a savings provision expands the statute of repose for the voluntarily dismissed claim to be revived.

  • January 06, 2025

    Athira Inks $4M FCA Deal Over Ex-CEO's Research Fraud

    Athira Pharma Inc. has agreed to pay $4 million to resolve allegations it used falsified academic research papers on neurological disorders like Alzheimer's to secure federal grants from the National Institute of Health, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

  • January 06, 2025

    Sidley, Wachtell Guide Inari Medical's $4.9B Sale To Stryker

    Medical technology company Stryker Corp., represented by Sidley Austin LLP, announced Monday that it has inked an agreement to acquire device maker Inari Medical Inc., represented by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, in a deal worth about $4.9 billion.

  • January 06, 2025

    High Court Asked To Take Whistleblower Medical Device Row

    A former Minerva Surgical Inc. sales representative who says he was mistreated after raising concerns about the safety of certain medical devices wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his challenge to an arbitration award given to his former employer in whistleblower proceedings.

  • January 06, 2025

    Biotech Trade Secrets Case Gets New Punitive Damages Trial

    A California federal judge has ordered a new punitive damages trial on how much a former Skye Orthobiologics LLC employee owes in a case where he was found to have breached his fiduciary duties by leveraging Skye's proprietary information, after ruling last year there wasn't enough evidence to support an earlier $25 million award.

  • January 06, 2025

    Biotech Co. Revance Faces Suit After Tender Offer Weakens

    Biotechnology company Revance Therapeutics Inc. and two of its executives face a proposed investor class action alleging the company hurt investors after the value of a take-private tender offer was negotiated down following allegations that Revance had breached a distribution deal with another company.

  • January 06, 2025

    DOD Adds WeChat Owner, CATL To Chinese Military Co. List

    The U.S. Department of Defense added dozens of businesses Monday to its list of companies affiliated with the Chinese military, including electric-car battery maker CATL and Tencent Holdings Ltd. — owner of the popular text-messaging app WeChat — prompting Tencent to slam the designation as "clearly a mistake."

  • January 06, 2025

    Labcorp Loses Appeal Of Gene-Testing Patent In $372M Case

    Labcorp, one of the world's largest chains of clinical lab providers, lost its appeal over a patent tied to a $372 million judgment it is facing in the Western District of Texas, after Federal Circuit judges on Monday upheld an administrative patent board ruling against it two years ago.

  • January 06, 2025

    Judge Urged To Sit Out Alopecia IP Row Over Ex-Clerk's Role

    Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has asked a New Jersey federal judge to recuse himself from a case alleging the company's alopecia drug infringes an Incyte patent, saying Incyte's attorneys hired the judge's former law clerk and put him on the case, creating "an indelible appearance of impropriety."

  • January 06, 2025

    Teoxane Outbids Crown With New Revance Therapeutics Bid

    Teoxane SA said Monday it has submitted a proposal to Revance Therapeutics Inc. to acquire the healthcare biotechnology company for $3.60 per share in cash, one-upping Revance's existing agreement to sell itself to skincare company Crown Laboratories Inc. for $3.10 per share in cash. 

  • January 06, 2025

    Girard Sharp Launches Into New Year With New Leadership

    San Francisco-based Girard Sharp has kicked off the new year with a major leadership change, announcing Monday that Daniel C. Girard had stepped down as managing partner of the prominent plaintiffs complex litigation boutique he founded in 1995 and that longtime partner Dena C. Sharp was taking the reins.

  • January 03, 2025

    Vizgen Loses Antitrust Claims Against 10x In Biotech IP Fight

    A Delaware federal court on Friday dropped Harvard's business partners at 10x Genomics Inc. out of some of the antitrust counterclaims by a rival biotech developer that is targeted in a patent lawsuit set for trial next month.

  • January 03, 2025

    Ex-Locke Lord IP Pros To Build Buchanan Chicago Office

    More than a dozen intellectual property pros from Locke Lord LLP, which officially merged with Troutman Pepper on Wednesday, are moving over to Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, and most of them are going to be part of launching the firm's new office in Chicago.

  • January 03, 2025

    Natera Loses New Trial Bid After Winning $96M Patent Verdict

    A Delaware federal judge denied Natera's bid for a new trial in a case where a jury awarded the DNA test company $96 million in damages after finding rival CareDx stole from one of its patents but didn't infringe a second patent, saying Friday that sufficient evidence backed the verdict.

  • January 03, 2025

    Aetna Says Takeda Inked Deal To Block Generics, Keep Profits

    Takeda Pharmaceuticals struck an anticompetitive deal with Par Pharmaceutical to keep a cheaper, generic version of its anticonstipation drug Amitiza off the market after the drug's compound patent expired, Aetna claimed Friday in a Massachusetts lawsuit, with the insurer alleging it overpaid millions of dollars for the brand name drug.

  • January 03, 2025

    DOJ Wants Oct. Amedisys Trial, UnitedHealth Wants Aug.

    The U.S. Department of Justice sparred with UnitedHealth Group in a Maryland federal court filing Friday over when to hold a trial on the government challenge to the $3.3 billion purchase of home health and hospice services company Amedisys Inc.

  • January 03, 2025

    PBMs 'Wasting' Time in Opioid MDL Discovery Spat: Judge

    An Ohio federal judge overseeing multidistrict opioid litigation on Friday denied pharmacy benefit managers a stay to appeal a discovery order and said he believed the PBMs were "wasting" the court's time.

  • January 03, 2025

    Cancer Drug Co. Revives Bid To Go Public Via Direct Listing

    Brain cancer-focused drug developer NeOnc Technologies Holdings Inc. filed plans on Friday to go public through a direct listing, represented by Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP, as it pursues an alternative to an initial public offering after canceling a prior IPO attempt.

  • January 03, 2025

    Pfizer Partner Targets GSK In COVID Vax Patent Suit

    A drug developer that Pfizer and BioNTech partnered with to develop their COVID-19 vaccine has opened up another legal front in a dispute over allegations that the Pfizer vaccine infringes patents issued to U.K. drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

  • January 03, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Cancellation Of TMs On Pink Hip Implants

    The Federal Circuit on Friday said a trademark panel correctly canceled a German medical supplier's trade dress protections for the color pink in a hip joint implant part because the color is functional, citing the company's previous patents and public statements to support that conclusion.

Expert Analysis

  • Rebuttal

    Cancer Research Org. Is Right To Avoid Corporate Influence

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    While a previous Law360 guest article criticizes the International Agency for Research on Cancer's processes, its reliance on peer-reviewed literature is proper and its refusal to allow corporate influence is sound science, say Lance Oliver and Ridge Mazingo at Motley Rice.

  • Cannabis Biz Real Estate Loan Considerations For Lenders

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    Now that cannabis sales are legal in some states, real estate lenders are interested in financing the land used by cannabis companies, but because cannabis sales are still illegal under federal law, lenders must make adjustments for cannabis-adjacent transactions, say Mark Levenson and Jeffrey Wendler at Sills Cummis.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents

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    Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.

  • A Primer On EU's Updated Human Substance Regulations

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    The European Union's updated standards regarding quality and safety of substances of human origin meant for human application carry significant implications for companies that work with cells and tissues, and U.S. companies active in the EU market should pay particular attention to the import and export rules, say Geneviève Michaux and Georgios Symeonidis at King & Spalding.

  • Series

    Teaching Scuba Diving Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    As a master scuba instructor, I’ve learned how to prepare for the unexpected, overcome fears and practice patience, and each of these skills – among the many others I’ve developed – has profoundly enhanced my work as a lawyer, says Ron Raether at Troutman Pepper.

  • The Road Ahead For Regulation Of Digital Twins In Healthcare

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    Digital replicas of cells, organs and people — known as digital twins — can facilitate clinical trials for new drugs by reducing the number of patients required, but data limitations can create logistical hurdles and regulatory efforts addressing digital twins are still in early stages, say consultants at Keystone Strategy.

  • Lawyers Can Take Action To Honor The Voting Rights Act

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    As the Voting Rights Act reaches its 59th anniversary Tuesday, it must urgently be reinforced against recent efforts to dismantle voter protections, and lawyers can pitch in immediately by volunteering and taking on pro bono work to directly help safeguard the right to vote, says Anna Chu at We The Action.

  • 3rd Circ. Ruling Shows Benefits Of IP Licenses In Bankruptcy

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    The Third Circuit’s recent ruling in Mallinckrodt’s Chapter 11 filing, which held that Mallinckrodt could sever its obligations to pay Sanofi royalties on sales of an autoimmune disease drug, highlights the advantages of structuring transactions as nonexclusive licenses for developers of intellectual property, say Gregory Hesse and Kaleb Bailey at Hunton.

  • Opinion

    Unclear Intellectual Property Laws Are Stifling US Innovation

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    U.S. intellectual property law’s lack of predictability means far less job-creating investments for companies that need patent protection to compete, and Congress must step in with legislation like the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act to help address the problem, says Michael Gulliford at Soryn IP Capital Management.

  • The Fed. Circ. In June: More Liability For Generic-Drug Makers

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    The Federal Circuit’s June ruling in Amarin v. Hikma will likely result in more allegations of induced infringement by generic drugs postapproval, with more of those cases proceeding to at least the summary judgment stage instead of being cut off at the outset, say Jeremiah Helm and Sean Murray at Knobbe Martens.

  • Opinion

    Expert Witness Standards Must Consider Peer Review Crisis

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    For nearly two decades, the so-called replication crisis has upended how the scientific community views the reliability of peer-reviewed studies, and it’s time for courts to reevaluate whether peer review is a trustworthy proxy for expert witness reliability, say Jeffrey Gross and Robert LaCroix at Reid Collins.

  • Analyzing Advance Notice Bylaws On 'Clear' Or 'Cloudy' Days

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    In Kellner v. AIM ImmunoTech, the Delaware Supreme Court recently clarified the framework for judicial review of advance notice bylaws adopted, amended or enforced on "clear" or "cloudy" days, underscoring the responsibility of boards to ensure that their scope does not overreach or prevent the possibility of a contested election, say attorneys at Venable.

  • How To Grow Marketing, Biz Dev Teams In A Tight Market

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    Faced with fierce competition and rising operating costs, firms are feeling the pressure to build a well-oiled marketing and business development team that supports strategic priorities, but they’ll need to be flexible and creative given a tight talent market, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

  • Patent Lessons From 5 Federal Circuit Reversals In June

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    A look at June cases where the Federal Circuit reversed or vacated decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or a federal district court highlights a potential path for branded drugmakers to sue generic-drug makers for off-label uses, potential downsides of violating a pretrial order offering testimony, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

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