Deals & Corporate Governance
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October 22, 2025
Bristol-Myers $450M Payment Dispute Heads To Arbitration
A judge sitting for Delaware's Court of Chancery has sent to arbitration allegations from shareholders of a small biotechnology company acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb that the pharmaceutical giant used trickery to avoid paying up to $450 million in milestone payments.
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October 22, 2025
5 Firms Guide $2.1B Alkermes-Avadel Sleep Medicine Deal
Dublin-based Alkermes PLC has agreed to buy Avadel Pharmaceuticals PLC, a fellow Irish drugmaker focused on sleep medicine, in an all-cash deal valuing Avadel at about $2.1 billion, the companies said on Wednesday.
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October 22, 2025
NC Biz Court Bulletin: COVID Coverage, A Suspect Signature
The North Carolina Business Court has rounded the corner into fall with insurance disputes over COVID-19 coverage at a chain of outlet malls and the theft of over $900,000 in legal THC reportedly stolen from a warehouse in the Southwest.
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October 22, 2025
Winstead Real Estate Co-Chair Talks Healthcare Dealmaking
Healthcare real estate transactions have evolved in recent years, as hospital systems increasingly see selling their real estate as a way to raise funds, and as the delivery model for healthcare shifts to a retail model.
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October 21, 2025
Judge Trims Pharma Co. Claims Against Ex-Employees
A Florida federal judge has narrowed pharmaceutical company Lupin Inc.'s lawsuit accusing a rival of stealing trade secrets, freeing a pair of former employees of claims that they breached their fiduciary duties by allegedly swiping the company's confidential information.
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October 21, 2025
Private Equity Win in FCA Case Shows Limits of Statute Reach
With private equity firms in the healthcare industry facing increased FCA scrutiny, a recent federal court decision in Nebraska illustrates the obstacles faced by whistleblowers trying to reach investors’ pockets.
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October 21, 2025
HLTH 2025 Dispatch: Medicaid Cuts, Mark Cuban, AI
Law360 Healthcare Authority goes to HLTH, the annual healthcare industry conference in Las Vegas.
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October 21, 2025
Regeneron, Rival End Patent Fight Over Eye Med Biosimilar
Regeneron and a South Korea-based rival it had accused of infringing several patents covering the U.S. biotech company's top eye medication Eylea have agreed to a settlement to put an end to the case filed in West Virginia federal court.
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October 21, 2025
PE Giants Ink $18.3B Deal For Hologic Amid Megadeal Blitz
Hologic Inc. said Tuesday it will be acquired by a private equity consortium in a deal valuing the Wachtell-advised medical technology company around $18.3 billion, marking one of the largest leveraged healthcare buyouts in recent years.
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October 21, 2025
Novartis Says Alexion's 'Block The Cause' Ads Are False
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. is suing rival Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Delaware federal court, alleging that Alexion's "Block the Cause" ad campaign for its Ultomiris product falsely implies that Novartis' own treatment is less effective or even dangerous.
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October 20, 2025
Sterigenics Nears Win In Georgia Ethylene Oxide Litigation
Sterigenics Inc. notched two significant wins in sprawling litigation over its alleged emissions of carcinogenic ethylene oxide at an Atlanta-area plant, as a Georgia state court judge tossed residents' specific causation claims and allegations that the plant's activities constituted a private nuisance.
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October 17, 2025
Acadia Investors Score Partial Win In Fraud Class Action
A Tennessee federal judge has granted a proposed class of Acadia Healthcare Co. investors a partial early win in their suit claiming the company misled them about the strength of its United Kingdom operations, finding that the investors have presented genuine issues of material fact and that Acadia failed to properly rebut their claims.
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October 15, 2025
Texas Appeals Court Pushes Cigna On Payments To Hospitals
A Texas appeals court seemed skeptical of Cigna Healthcare of Texas Inc.'s claim that once a patient gets hospitalized, any subsequent treatment should be classified as emergency care, asking Wednesday why Cigna should get to escape a lawsuit claiming it underpaid multiple hospitals.
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October 14, 2025
Full 3rd Circ. Won't Rethink $45M CareDx False Ad Case
The Third Circuit on Tuesday turned down medical testing company CareDx's request to have a full panel mull whether to reinstate a $45 million jury award in a false advertisement case over genetic testing technology against rival Natera.
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October 14, 2025
Healthcare Deals This Week: Oura, AstraZeneca, BMS
It was a week of major deals in the healthcare sector space, with startups like Oura and Kardigan securing significant funding, Bristol Myers Squibb and Novo Nordisk announcing billion-dollar acquisitions and AstraZeneca striking a deal with the Trump administration.
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October 14, 2025
Colo. Biz Accuses VA Of Ignoring Veteran-Owned Suppliers
A Colorado company accused the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of improperly greenlighting purchases of electrocardiogram leads from a large overseas business when American-made items are available from it and other veteran-owned small businesses.
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October 14, 2025
Judges Back Ga. County's Use Of Outside Attys In Opioid Suit
The Georgia Court of Appeals has backed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Publix Supermarkets claiming a metro Atlanta county unconstitutionally hired outside counsel to pursue opioid litigation against the grocery chain, ruling Publix had "done nothing to assuage" the court's reasons for throwing out an almost identical suit earlier this year.
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October 14, 2025
Covington, Sidley Guide $700M BioCryst Allergic Disease Deal
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. will purchase Astria Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on therapies for allergic and immunologic diseases, in a cash and stock deal worth about $700 million, the companies announced Tuesday.
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October 10, 2025
DOJ Can't Pause Review Of UnitedHealth Deal Amid Shutdown
A Maryland federal judge rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to stay its recently settled case with UnitedHealth over the company's merger with Amedisys because of the government shutdown and lapse in appropriations, ruling that a stay would impede the DOJ's ability to evaluate the public interest in the settlement.
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October 10, 2025
ATyr Pharma Faces Investor Suit Over Failed Drug Trial
Rare disease biotech aTyr Pharma Inc. and its CEO have been hit with a proposed shareholder class action accusing them of misleading the public about the efficacy of aTyr's lung disease treatment for several months before announcing its trial had not yielded favorable results.
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October 10, 2025
Prospect Medical Gets OK For $45M Yale Health Deal In Ch. 11
A Texas bankruptcy judge Friday approved a $45 million settlement between Yale New Haven Health Services Corp. and Prospect Medical that ends a legal battle over failed hospital sales, as Prospect works toward exiting Chapter 11.
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October 10, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Sullivan, MoFo, Freshfields
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Fifth Third Bancorp acquires Comerica in an all-stock deal, Qualtrics buys experience analytics firm Press Ganey Forsta, and SoftBank buys ABB's robotics division.
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October 09, 2025
Biotronik Wants Full 9th Circ. Review Of Whistleblower Ruling
Biotronik Inc. urged the full Ninth Circuit to review a panel ruling that revived a whistleblower suit alleging the company used unlawful compensation tactics to boost heart-device sales, saying it should have been tossed based on prior disclosures in news articles.
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October 09, 2025
Tivity Health Investors Seek Final OK Of $17M Settlement
An investor in fitness program administrator Tivity Health Inc. has asked a Nashville federal judge for a final nod for an over $17 million deal ending claims the company misled investors about its financial prospects after its $1.3 billion acquisition of troubled weight-loss meal delivery company Nutrisystem.
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October 08, 2025
Del. Judge May Have Mallinckrodt Choose: Injunction Or $10M
A Delaware federal judge said he might ask Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals to choose between getting a competitor's inhaled nitric oxide treatment enjoined, or receiving the entire $9.5 million a jury determined it's owed for infringement.
Expert Analysis
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Careful Data Governance Is A Must Amid Enforcement Focus
Federal and state regulators' heightened focus on privacy enforcement, including the Federal Trade Commission's recent guidance on consumer protection in the car industry, highlight the importance of proactive risk management, compliance and data governance, say Jason Priebe and Danny Riley at Seyfarth.
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5 Steps To Navigating State Laws On Healthcare Transactions
As more states pass legislation requiring healthcare-transaction notice, private equity investors and other deal parties should evaluate the new laws and consider ways to mitigate their effects, say Carol Loepere and Nicole Aiken-Shaban at Reed Smith.
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Feds' Biotech Enforcement Efforts Are Too Heavy-Handed
The U.S. Department of Justice's recent actions against biotech companies untether the Anti-Kickback Statute from its original legislative purpose, and threaten to stifle innovation and undermine patient quality of care, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures
The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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A Recipe For Growth Equity Investing In A Slow M&A Market
Carl Marcellino at Ropes & Gray discusses the factors bolstering appetite for growth equity fundraising in a depressed M&A market, and walks through the deal terms and other ingredients that set growth equity transactions apart from bread-and-butter venture capital investing.
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PE-Healthcare Mergers Should Prepare For Challenges
State and federal regulators are increasingly imposing new requirements on healthcare transactions involving private equity partners, with mergers that would have drawn little scrutiny a few years ago now requiring a multijurisdictional risk analysis during the deal formation process, say attorneys at Stinson.
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Behind Indiana's Broad New Healthcare Transactions Law
The high materiality threshold in Indiana's recently passed healthcare transaction law, coupled with the inclusion of private equity in its definition of healthcare entities, makes it one of the broadest state review regulations to date, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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Highlights From The 2024 ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting
U.S. merger enforcement and cartels figured heavily in this year's American Bar Association spring antitrust meeting, where one key takeaway included news that the Federal Trade Commission's anticipated changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino form may be less dramatic than many originally feared, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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The Merger Cases That Will Matter At ABA Antitrust Meeting
While the American Bar Association's Antitrust Spring Meeting this week will cover all types of competition law issues in the U.S. and abroad, expect the federal agencies' recent track record in merger enforcement to be a key area of focus on the official panels and in cocktail party chatter, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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Planning For Healthcare-Private Equity Antitrust Enforcement
U.S. antitrust agency developments could mean potential enforcement actions on healthcare-related acquisitions by private equity funds are on the way, and entities operating in this space should follow a series of practice tips, including early assessment of antitrust risks on both the state and federal level, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.
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Why Oncology Deal Making Continues To Fuel Biotech M&A
The biotech sector's potential for advancements in cancer care continues to attract deal-maker interest, and the keys to successful mergers and acquisitions include the ability to integrate innovative therapies, leverage technological advancements and respond to the dynamic needs of patients, say Bryan Luchs and Mike Weir at White & Case.
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Tips For Healthcare M&A Amid Heightened Antitrust Scrutiny
As the Biden administration maintains its aggressive approach to antitrust merger enforcement, prudent healthcare M&A counsel will consider practical advice when contemplating their next transaction, including carefully selecting a merger partner and preparing for a potentially long waiting period prior to closing, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.