Life Sciences

  • November 30, 2023

    Clinics Sue To Block Wash. AG 'Abortion Pill Reversal' Probe

    A pair of anti-abortion centers sued the Washington attorney general in federal court Thursday over "unreasonable" information requests stemming from a probe of their promotion of what they claim is a process to reverse medication abortions, arguing the investigation is based on political "animus" and violates their free speech rights.

  • November 30, 2023

    Ohio Panel Won't Hold Drug Testing Co. Liable For Fatal Crash

    An Ohio state appeals court on Thursday refused to revive allegations that Concentra Health Services Inc. should be held liable for a fatal crash involving a tool rental company driver who beat a drug test by using synthetic urine, reasoning that Concentra had no relationship with the decedent or a survivor and therefore no duty to protect them.

  • November 30, 2023

    Drug Cabinet Finger Scans Are BIPA-Exempt, Ill. Justices Say

    The Biometric Information Privacy Act doesn't protect health care workers whose fingerprints are collected, stored and used to access medications and medical supplies, the Illinois Supreme Court said Thursday, though it cautioned the ruling shouldn't block all BIPA suits from health care workers. 

  • November 30, 2023

    FDA Shares New Info To Help Carry Out Food Traceability Rule

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday released example compliance plans and other tools intended to help restaurants and farms prepare for their additional recordkeeping requirements under a new food-tracking rule.

  • November 30, 2023

    FDA Promotes Chief Scientist To Deputy Commissioner

    After less than two years as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's chief scientist, Namandjé N. Bumpus, a pharmacology Ph.D. who specializes in HIV research, has been selected as the agency's next principal deputy commissioner.

  • November 30, 2023

    11th Circ. Orders New Trial In Pill Mill Row Over Ruan

    The Eleventh Circuit gave a new trial to a Florida doctor accused of participating in a pill mill scheme after finding that the district court's jury instructions failed to properly instruct whether the doctor acted with criminal intent after new mens rea precedent in USA v. Ruan. 

  • November 30, 2023

    Justices Told PTAB's Ax Of Ventilator Patent Was Wrong Call

    A California State University, Fullerton, professor has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit decision that refused to revive claims in her patent on a medical ventilator, challenging the circuit court's finding that the claims were obvious.

  • November 30, 2023

    Republican AGs Assail Abortion Coverage Law At 9th Circ.

    Almost two dozen red states and various religious freedom groups told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court ruling in favor of a Washington law requiring employee health plans to cover abortion services tramples over religious rights.

  • November 30, 2023

    Wachtell Lipton Guiding AbbVie On $10.1B ImmunoGen Buy

    AbbVie Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to buy cancer drugmaker ImmunoGen Inc. at a total equity value of approximately $10.1 billion, with representation from Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, sending the stock soaring 80% in pre-market trading Thursday.   

  • November 29, 2023

    Fed. Circ. Told To Defer To ITC In Apple Watch IP Row

    A small Silicon Valley medical device startup's efforts to use the U.S. International Trade Commission to litigate allegations that Apple Inc. pilfered health tracking software for its smartwatches have drawn supportive amicus briefs from a handful of trade groups, a billionaire venture capitalist and a Japanese manufacturer of health monitors.

  • November 29, 2023

    House Told AI Is A Tool, Not A Decision Maker, In Health Care

    Amid expanding innovations in artificial intelligence in the health care industry, from AI scribes of patient visits to algorithm-driven medical imaging, experts are urging lawmakers to develop regulation and oversight to avoid compromising patient safety and privacy.

  • November 29, 2023

    Investors Say Co. Lied About Ultrasound Tech Prior To Merger

    A pair of shareholders in digital health company Butterfly Network Inc. have launched a derivative suit against the company's current and former top brass, alleging they drastically inflated the company's sales projections and the quality of its main ultrasound product to convince investors to approve a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.

  • November 29, 2023

    Eli Lilly Partners With Prism BioLab In Deal Worth $660M

    Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Japanese biotech company Prism BioLab are partnering in a deal worth up to $660 million to discover and develop a new protein-protein interaction target, Prism said Tuesday.

  • November 29, 2023

    New York Electric Utility Escapes Insurer's $3.7M Lab Fire Suit

    A New York federal judge allowed an electric utility to escape a Zurich unit's subrogation suit over $3.7 million in coverage for a laboratory fire, ruling Wednesday that the insurer failed to prove the company caused the 2018 blaze.

  • November 29, 2023

    Pharma Co. Says 'Ulterior' Aim Shouldn't Kill Records Suit

    A clinical-stage biopharma company that failed to force a potential acquisition target to open its corporate books said Wednesday that Delaware's Court of Chancery "misapplied governing law" by denying the inspection, and urged Delaware's Supreme Court to reverse the decision.

  • November 29, 2023

    Drug Giants Face 3rd RICO Suit In 3 Weeks Over Insulin Prices

    A Maryland county south of Washington, D.C., has joined the flood of litigation accusing drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers of violating a federal racketeering law in a scheme to jack up insulin prices.

  • November 29, 2023

    How New Expert-Witness Rules Put Science Front And Center

    New rules taking effect Friday are set to revamp how courts accept or reject expert witnesses, with a focus on the science underpinning their opinions. Law360 spoke to a lawyer whose article helped spur the changes.

  • November 29, 2023

    AbbVie Tells 3rd Circ. 'Sham' Case Ruling 'Explodes' Privilege

    Judges on a Third Circuit panel were skeptical Wednesday of arguments from AbbVie Inc. that a lower court's ruling on discovery of attorney communications in a "sham" patent case would open the floodgates to privilege challenges any time a drug company files a suit that slows down a competitor.

  • November 28, 2023

    Insurers Escape Allergy Treatment Groups' Antitrust Claims

    A Louisiana federal court has tossed antitrust claims from allergy testing and immunotherapy outfits against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana and other insurers after finding a lack of evidence showing a conspiracy to push the groups out of the market.

  • November 28, 2023

    Biotech Co.'s Counterclaims Against Ex-Exec Trimmed

    A California federal judge has tossed a Colorado biotechnology company's counterclaims alleging fraud and negligent misrepresentation by a co-founder and technology chief of another firm it acquired for $35 million in 2022, but allowed the biotech's bid for declaratory relief regarding the executive's exit from the company to move forward.

  • November 28, 2023

    UCLA Study Finds Calif. Teens Can't Get Plan B At Pharmacies

    Pharmacies in California are denying adolescents emergency contraception like Plan B despite a state law giving minors access to that treatment, according to a new study released by a research center at the UCLA School of Law.

  • November 28, 2023

    Drugmakers Argue Double Patenting Ruling Defies Congress

    AbbVie, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Novartis and other big-name pharmaceutical companies are urging the full Federal Circuit to reconsider a patent invalidation that they say placed a judicially made rule above law set by Congress.

  • November 28, 2023

    Group Says Doctor COVID-19 Disinformation Suit Isn't Moot

    The New Civil Liberties Alliance has told a California federal court that a suit over a California law punishing medical professionals for COVID-19 disinformation should move forward despite a newly enacted law repealing it because doctors still suffered damages and the state is sidestepping a potentially adverse ruling.

  • November 28, 2023

    Mich. Health Dept. Asks 6th Circ. To Back Baby Blood Program

    Michigan health officials urged the Sixth Circuit Monday to reverse a ruling that dismantled its newborn blood-screening program, calling that program a "paragon of good government."

  • November 28, 2023

    Daiichi Awarded $46M Fees In Cancer Drug Patent Arbitration

    Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo Ltd. has scored nearly $46 million in fees and costs in an arbitration initiated by rival Seagen in the companies' patent dispute over cancer drug technology after the arbitrator found that the U.S. biotech company did not file its infringement claims within the six-year statute of limitations.

Expert Analysis

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Cross-Market Implications In FTC's Anesthesia Complaint

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent complaint against a private equity firm's acquisition of anesthesiology practices highlights the controversial issue of cross-market harm in health care provider mergers, and could provide important insights into how a court may view such theories of harm, say Christopher Lau and Dina Older Aguilar at Cornerstone Research.

  • FTC Orange Book Move Signals New Pharma Patent Scrutiny

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent dispute against improper listing of drug patents in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book indicates heightened surveillance of the pharmaceutical industry, particularly where competition-related consequences of patent or regulatory processes are concerned, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • How Legal Teams Can Prep For Life Sciences' Tech Revolution

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    The life sciences and health care industries are uniquely positioned to take advantage of new efficiencies created by cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence, but the sensitivity of their data also demands careful navigation of an expanding legislative and regulatory landscape, say Kristi Gedid, Zack Laplante and Lisa LaMotta at Ernst & Young.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: South Korea

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    Numerous ESG trends have materialized in South Korea in the past three years, with impacts ranging from greenwashing prevention and carbon neutrality measures to workplace harassment and board diversity initiatives, say Chang Wook Min and Hyun Chan Jung at Jipyong.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Administrative Procedure

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    A pair of recent Federal Circuit rulings on Patent Trial and Appeal Board inter partes review shed light on applications of the Administrative Procedure Act, adding to an ever-growing body of case law showing the board's final written decision must be based on arguments clearly put forth by the parties, say Robert High and Benjamin Saidman at Finnegan.

  • Rite Aid's Reasons For Ch. 11 Go Beyond Opioid Suits

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    Despite opioid-related lawsuits being the perceived reason that pushed Rite Aid into bankruptcy, the company's recent Chapter 11 filing reveals its tenuous position in the pharmaceutical retail market, and only time will tell whether bankruptcy will right-size the company, says Daniel Gielchinsky at DGIM Law.

  • Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.

  • FDA's Lab-Developed Test Rule May Bring Historic Challenges

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    If finalized, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposed rule for regulating laboratory-developed tests will provoke some of the most interesting legal challenges that the agency has faced in decades, with outcomes that will likely reverberate across the agency's product centers, says Stacy Amin at MoFo.

  • Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD

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    Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • A Look At DOJ's New Nationwide Investment Fraud Approach

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    Investment fraud charges are increasingly being brought in unlikely venues across the country, and the rationale behind the U.S. Department of Justice's approach could well be the heightened legal standards in connection with prosecuting investment fraud, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Earnout Contract Considerations After NC Good Faith Ruling

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    The North Carolina Supreme Court's recent Value Health Solutions v. Pharmaceutical Research decision, holding the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing did not apply in an earnout dispute related to an asset sale, demonstrates the need for practitioners to pay careful attention to milestone concepts in M&A transactions, says Benjamin Hicks at Wagner Hicks.

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