Deals & Corporate Governance
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 11, 2025
5th Circ. Revives Unfair Competition Fight Over Arthritis Drug
The Fifth Circuit has revived Zyla Life Sciences LLC's lawsuit seeking to block Texas rival Wells Pharma from selling rheumatoid arthritis drug suppositories that aren't U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved, rejecting Wells Pharma's argument that Zyla's state claims are preempted under federal law and noting that finding otherwise would have "staggering" implications.
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April 11, 2025
Future Pak Goes Public With $255M Theratechnologies Bid
Pharmaceutical manufacturer and packager Future Pak LLC, advised by Honigman LLP, on Friday publicly unveiled its proposal to acquire pharmaceutical company Theratechnologies Inc. for up to $255 million, a move that comes after Future Pak has received "minimal engagement" from the other company.
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April 08, 2025
Iowa Hospital's Decline Gets Close Look In Bankruptcy Case
The former operator of a now-bankrupt Iowa hospital is facing scrutiny over allegations the hospital suffered massive operating losses while paying some $9 million to the operator in fees in the years before its financial collapse.
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April 08, 2025
Healthcare IPOs Take Another Hit Amid Trump Tariff War
Hopes for an improving healthcare public market all but vanished after a sweeping tariffs announcement from Washington set off a wave of market volatility.
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April 08, 2025
Pacira Reaches IP Deal Allowing Generic Painkiller In 2030
Pacira BioSciences has agreed to settle a series of patent infringement lawsuits against Fresenius Kabi and other pharmaceutical companies over Pacira's drug Exparel, a long-acting injectable for managing postsurgical pain.
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April 08, 2025
Hospital Operator Gets 'Burdensome' Antitrust Info Bid Pared
A North Carolina federal judge has pared HCA Healthcare Inc.'s subpoenas to a hospital network in a consolidated antitrust case accusing it of hiking Tar Heel State public employees' health insurance costs, putting a two-hour time limit on the depositions it sought and cutting three years of requested information.
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April 08, 2025
Pharmaceutical Tariff Exemption Is No End to Cost Threat
The life sciences industry escaped much of the immediate impact of President Donald Trump's market-shaking tariff order, thanks to the inclusion of a single word on an exemption list — "pharmaceuticals." The relief may not last long.
Expert Analysis
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Negotiating AI-Life Sciences Partnerships To Minimize IP Risk
When life sciences companies and AI companies form partnerships to foster innovation, the parties should align interests as well as mitigate intellectual property risks by strategically identifying and addressing the unique AI-related legal issues, such as training data, AI model and output, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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How To Recognize And Recover From Lawyer Loneliness
Law can be one of the loneliest professions, but there are practical steps that attorneys and their managers can take to help themselves and their peers improve their emotional health, strengthen their social bonds and protect their performance, says psychologist and attorney Traci Cipriano.
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Litigation Funding Disclosure Should Be Mandatory
Despite the Appellate Rules Committee's recent deferral of the issue of requiring third-party litigation funding disclosure, such a mandate is necessary to ensure the even-handed administration of justice across all cases, says David Levitt at Hinshaw.
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Recalling USWNT's Legal PR Playbook Amid World Cup Bid
As the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team strives to take home another World Cup trophy, their 2022 pay equity settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation serves as a good reminder that winning in the court of public opinion can be more powerful than a victory inside the courtroom, says Hector Valle at Vianovo.
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Revalidation Unlikely To End NIH Tech-Deal Bid Protest Saga
Recent U.S. Government Accountability Office decisions requiring the National Institutes of Health to again rework a $50 billion information technology contract probably won't result in an award for many protesters, and the corrective action will likely be followed by more protests, say James Tucker and Damien Specht at MoFo.
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Colorado Antitrust Reform Carries Broad State Impact
Colorado recently became the latest state to update and expand its antitrust laws, and the new act may significantly affect enforcement and private litigation, particularly when it comes to workers and consumers, says Diane Hazel at Foley & Lardner.
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Parsing Through The FTC's Proposed Health Privacy Updates
The Federal Trade Commission's recently proposed updates to its Health Breach Notification Rule contain subtle but significant changes to key terms that help modernize the agency's health app regulation and provide stakeholders an important opportunity to help shape the future of virtual health care, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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Regulating AI: An Overview Of Federal Efforts
The U.S. has been carefully managing a national policy and regulatory ecosystem toward artificial intelligence, but as AI technology continues to expand into our everyday lives, so too has its risks and the need for regulation, says Jennifer Maisel at Rothwell Figg.
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Merger Guidelines Should Provide For Competition Trustees
Following the U.S. antitrust agencies' release of draft merger guidelines, retired U.S. Court of Federal Claims Chief Judge Susan Braden suggests a court-appointed competition trustee would help ensure U.S. competition without impairing economic prosperity.
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Indivior Ruling May Affect Rebate Wall Litigation
A New Jersey federal court's recent decision in Indivior v. Alvogen, in which a claim that an alleged rebate wall anti-competitively blocked generic competition survived summary judgment, may provide a blueprint for successfully challenging other drug rebating practices, say Peter Herrick and Monsura Sirajee at O'Melveny.
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Merger Guidelines' Broad Tack Ignores Recent Precedent
The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission's new proposed merger guidelines are consistent with the Biden administration's expansive approach to antitrust enforcement, but they fail to grapple meaningfully with much of modern economic precedent and court decisions requiring greater agency rigor in merger analysis, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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Mallory Gives Plaintiffs A Better Shot At Justice
Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern claim it opens the door to litigation tourism, but the ruling simply gives plaintiffs more options — enabling them to seek justice against major corporations in the best possible court, say Rayna Kessler and Ethan Seidenberg at Robins Kaplan.
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Courts Can Overturn Deficient State Regulations, Too
While suits challenging federal regulations have become commonplace, such cases against state agencies are virtually nonexistent, but many states have provisions that allow litigants to bring suit for regulations with inadequate cost-benefit analyses, says Reeve Bull at the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management.