Deals & Corporate Governance

  • April 28, 2025

    Sanofi Challenges Jurisdiction In Conn. Zantac Lawsuits

    Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC on Monday sought to exit nine combined Connecticut lawsuits claiming the heartburn drug ranitidine degraded into a compound that causes cancer, saying it is beyond the state's long-arm statute and that due process guarantees prevent it from being sued in Connecticut.

  • April 28, 2025

    Sullivan & Cromwell-Led Merck To Buy SpringWorks For $3.9B

    Merck KGaA said Monday it has agreed to acquire U.S. biotech company SpringWorks Therapeutics for $3.9 billion, as the German science and technology group aims to grow its cancer drug business and its global presence.

  • April 25, 2025

    Judge Says FDA Can Take Ozempic Off Shortage List

    A Texas federal judge has sided with arguments from Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk A/S not to block the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from moving forward with an administrative decision stopping "unsafe, knockoff versions" of the blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drug from flooding the market.

  • April 25, 2025

    Insulet's $452M Trade Secrets Award Reduced To $59.4M

    A $452 million trade secrets jury award for Insulet Corp. has been cut to $59.4 million by a Massachusetts federal judge who said the reduction is necessary to avoid double recovery and to comply with the law, following a trend where courts have reduced large jury awards in trade secret cases.

  • April 24, 2025

    Latham-Led LLR Clinches 7th Fund With $2.45B Committed

    Latham & Watkins LLP-advised LLR Partners on Thursday announced that it wrapped its seventh private equity fund with $2.45 billion in tow.

  • April 23, 2025

    GoodRx Beats Investor Suit Over Kroger-Linked Biz

    GoodRx Holdings Inc. has escaped a proposed shareholder class action alleging it concealed from investors the indispensability of its relationship with Kroger, according to an order signed by a California federal judge who said the suit does not show GoodRx knew Kroger had plans to renegotiate its contracts.

  • April 22, 2025

    This Week's Payor Earnings: UnitedHealthcare, Elevance

    Healthcare payors posted mixed earnings this past week, with UnitedHealthcare signaling a tough quarter full of headwinds, while Elevance fared better despite similar challenges.

  • April 22, 2025

    Judge Approves Prospect Medical's Pa. Hospitals' Closure 

    A Texas bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved Prospect Medical Holdings' request to close two Pennsylvania hospitals after the bankrupt operator was unable to secure another entity to run the hospitals despite support from government and community organizations to keep them open.

  • April 22, 2025

    Tivity Health Denied Win In Suit Over Nutrisystem Buy

    Health program company Tivity Health was largely denied a summary judgment win over investors who sued the company over its troubled $1.3 billion purchase of Nutrisystem, according to an order from a Tennessee federal judge who ruled Tivity's duty to disclose certain information is still debatable.

  • April 22, 2025

    J&J Ends Trade Secrets Suit Against Now Deceased Ex-Exec

    Johnson & Johnson has reached a settlement with the estate of a former executive that it accused of stealing confidential files when he left the company to work for Pfizer, but who died in the middle of the litigation, the parties told a New Jersey federal court.

  • April 22, 2025

    Trump's Healthcare Order A Mixed Bag For Big Pharma

    While Trump's executive order last week is more of a general road map than a clear plan for cutting prices, experts say it signals key policy priorities for the administration — including on a point of serious contention between drug companies and federal regulators.

  • April 21, 2025

    Sun Pharma Accuses Drugstores Of $10M Refund Scheme

    Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. told a New Jersey federal court that a group of pharmacies and their operators engaged in a criminal, years-long racketeering scheme that resulted in it paying more than $10 million in refunds for short-dated pharmaceutical products.

  • April 18, 2025

    PBMs Press 8th Circ. Bid To Pause FTC Case

    The nation's "Big Three" pharmacy benefit managers are asking the Eighth Circuit to pause the Federal Trade Commission's in-house insulin price-fixing case against them, saying that their constitutional challenge to the commission's administrative proceeding process should be fully heard before the in-house case moves forward.

  • April 17, 2025

    Incyte Can Get Novartis' Privileged Info On Drug Royalty Deal

    Novartis must produce certain privileged documents to Incyte concerning its understanding of their contract for royalty payments from sales of Incyte's blood cancer drug, unless Novartis agrees its former outside counsel, who negotiated the terms, won't testify about that topic at the upcoming contract breach trial, a New York federal judge said Thursday.

  • April 17, 2025

    NC Hospital Operator Can't Escape AG's Merger Suit Yet

    A North Carolina Business Court judge rejected HCA Healthcare's bid for a partial win in state Attorney General Jeff Jackson's compliance suit reviewing the company's 2019 purchase of another hospital system, ruling that the purchase agreement's language is too ambiguous to decide the matter without further discovery.

  • April 17, 2025

    Zenas BioPharma Faces Investor Suit Over Post-IPO Plunge

    Autoimmune disease therapeutics company Zenas BioPharma Inc. was hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging that its registration statement for its September 2024 initial public offering overstated the amount of time that the company could fund its operations using existing cash and expected net proceeds from the offering.

  • April 16, 2025

    DexCom Execs Sued For Allegedly Misleading Growth Claims

    Executives and directors of glucose monitor manufacturer DexCom Inc. have been hit with a derivative suit alleging that they concealed from investors that DexCom struggled to maintain a sales force that could keep up with growing demand following a Medicare policy expansion.

  • April 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Told Oregon Hospital Merger Law Flouts Due Process

    A hospital trade group urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to block an Oregon law allowing the Oregon Health Authority to review proposed healthcare business consolidations, arguing the law is "unconstitutionally vague" and bestows unlimited power on the agency to block healthcare transactions in the state.

  • April 15, 2025

    Big Pharma Touts US Investments Amid Tariff Threat

    As tariffs loom on the horizon, Big Pharma companies laud their plans to ramp up U.S. manufacturing — even as they're set to eat costs for the foreseeable future.

  • April 15, 2025

    McGuireWoods Immune From Defamation Case, NC Panel Told

    McGuireWoods LLP and a former partner have told a North Carolina state appeals court that they have absolute privilege over allegedly defamatory statements made in connection with an investigation into the former CEO of a managed care organization, arguing that the trial court should have granted them a pretrial win.

  • April 15, 2025

    Kirkland-Led Linden Wraps $5.4B Healthcare-Focused Fund

    Healthcare-focused private equity shop Linden Capital Partners, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Tuesday announced that it clinched its sixth fund with $5.4 billion of capital commitments.

  • April 11, 2025

    CFPB To Pull Medical Debt Opinion, May Ax Nonbank Registry

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Friday that it will scrap recent guidance aimed at reining in medical debt collectors and may close out its new national nonbank enforcement registry, extending the agency's pullback from its Biden-era policies.

  • April 11, 2025

    Dentsply Brass Face Investor Suit Over Alleged Dental Injuries

    Executives and directors of dental supply manufacturing company Dentsply Sirona Inc. have been hit with a derivative suit alleging they concealed that a company subsidiary was approving unsuitable patients for dental treatments to inflate sales figures.

  • April 11, 2025

    NC AG Can't Shield Most Merger Review Docs, Judge Holds

    The North Carolina Attorney General's Office can't shield a host of internal records pertaining to its review of a 2019 hospital merger at the center of a compliance case, a state court judge has said, finding "only a few" records constitute protected attorney-client communications or work product.

  • April 11, 2025

    Aurinia Sues Lotus Alleging Lupus Drug Patent Infringement

    Kidney-focused biotech Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Friday launched a lawsuit in New Jersey federal court claiming that Lotus Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s bid to sell a generic form of Aurinia's lupus nephritis treatment Lupkynis infringes a pair of patents.

Expert Analysis

  • Lessons For D&O Policyholders From Pharma Co. Ruling

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    A California federal court's recent decision in AmTrust v. 180 Life Sciences, requiring insurers to advance defense costs for a potentially covered claim, provides a valuable road map for directors and officers insurance policyholders, rebutting the common presumption that a D&O insurer's duty to advance costs is more limited than under other policies, say attorneys at Pasich.

  • ESG Around The World: Gulf Cooperation Council

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    The Gulf Cooperation Council is in the early stages of ESG policy implementation, but recent commitments by both states and corporations — including increases in sustainable finance transactions, environmental commitments, female representation on boards and human rights enforcement — show continuing progress toward broader ESG goals, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • Oregon Law Would Compromise Management Service Orgs

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    If passed, a proposed Oregon law would materially limit physician corporate practice of medicine structures, causing significant disruption to the provision of medicine and hindering professional corporations' ability to focus on the clinical components of their practice, say Christina Bergeron and William Shefelman at Ropes & Gray.

  • The Latest Antitrust Areas For In-House Counsel To Watch

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    The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission's increasingly aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement means in-house counsel should closely monitor five key compliance issues, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • Navigating New Regulations In Healthcare And Other M&A

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    While notice requirements recently enacted in several states are focused on the healthcare industry for now, this trend could extend to other industries as these requirements are designed to allow regulators to be a step ahead and learn more about a transaction long before it occurs, say Kathleen Premo and Ashley Creech at Epstein Becker.

  • New CMS Rule Will Change Nursing Facility Disclosures

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    A new rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services significantly expands disclosure requirements for nursing facilities backed by private equity companies or real estate investment trusts, likely foreshadowing increased oversight that could include more targeted audits, say Janice Davis and Christopher Ronne at Morgan Lewis.

  • Healthcare Collabs Can Alleviate Labor, Antitrust Challenges

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    Two major challenges facing hospitals and health systems include labor shortages and increased antitrust scrutiny at both federal and state levels, but collaborative efforts may help with addressing these difficulties, says Sumaya Noush at McDermott.

  • How Biotech Cos. Can Utilize Synthetic Royalty Financing

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    Synthetic royalty transactions have been on the rise as a funding structure for biotechnology companies, but questions have arisen surrounding how such transactions work, and structuring them correctly requires a nuanced understanding, say Todd Trattner and Ryan Murr at Gibson Dunn.

  • How Biotech Deals May Help Competition, Despite FTC View

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    The Federal Trade Commission's complaint against Sanofi's proposed partnership with Maze Therapeutics highlights increasing skepticism of so-called killer acquisitions, but a closer look reveals potentially legitimate reasons behind why entities might decide to delay or abandon the development of acquired products, say consultants at Analysis Group.

  • Notes Of Interest From 5th Circ. Illumina-Grail Merger Ruling

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    Attorneys at Simpson Thacher consider the Fifth Circuit's recent decision upholding the Federal Trade Commission's challenge of the Illumina merger with Grail, its much-needed boost to the Biden administration's antitrust agenda, and some silver linings the decision offers to merging parties.

  • A Potential Proactive Tool For Public-Private Joint Ventures

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    In the current environment of heightened antitrust enforcement, the National Cooperative Research and Production Act seems tailor-made for the collaborative work among competitors encouraged by the Biden administration's infrastructure and green energy funding legislation, say Jeetander Dulani and Susan Ebner at Stinson.

  • Financing Healthcare Deals In Uncertain Markets This Year

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    As challenges to closing and financing new deals prevail into 2024, lenders in new healthcare transactions are talking about alternative approaches for sponsors to consider, such as private credit alternatives and utilization of junior capital, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • A Primer On New Calif. Health Transaction Reporting Rules

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    New California regulations regarding the reporting of certain transactions involving healthcare entities, which took effect on Jan. 1, address some industry feedback about overly broad requirements but still leave several areas of concern, says Andrew Demetriou at Husch Blackwell.