Deals & Corporate Governance
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April 01, 2025
Forecast For Health Startups Shows Bright Spots Amid Gloom
Raising investor cash has been challenging for earlier-stage healthcare and life sciences startups over the past few years. But a smattering of private startups in recent weeks has shown that fundraising is still possible despite tough circumstances.
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April 01, 2025
FDA Cuts Prompt Biotech Players To Rethink Deal Strategies
Funding cuts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are sending ripples of concern through the biotech industry, as attorneys advise companies to consider a wider breadth of strategic alternatives amid fears of regulatory delays.
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March 31, 2025
Alcoa Retirees, Unions Win Block On Health Benefits Cutoff
Aluminum producer Alcoa USA Corp. must provide lifetime healthcare benefits to a group of retirees who were represented by unions, an Indiana federal judge ruled, greenlighting an injunction that allows class members to retroactively seek payments for costs.
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March 31, 2025
Pierson Ferdinand Adds Taylor English Health Pro In Atlanta
Pierson Ferdinand LLP announced Monday that it has hired a former Taylor English Duma LLP partner who specializes in mergers and acquisitions and also has sleep medicine expertise to strengthen its healthcare practice.
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March 28, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Norton Rose, Latham, Ashurst
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Dollar Tree sells its Family Dollar business to private equity firms, eye care company Alcon buys medical technology company Lensar and Ithaca Energy PLC buys the U.K. subsidiary of Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd.
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March 26, 2025
Sotomayor Urges Caution On Nondelegation Doctrine Revamp
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor cautioned her colleagues during oral arguments Wednesday against using a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's administration of a broadband subsidy program as a way to resurrect the long-dormant nondelegation doctrine. Several conservative justices, however, seemed willing to disregard that admonition.
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March 26, 2025
7 Firms Compete To Lead Novo Nordisk Securities Suit
Levi & Korsinsky LLP, Pomerantz LLP and the Rosen Law Firm PA are among seven law firms vying to lead proposed class claims accusing Novo Nordisk A/S of misleading investors about a clinical trial for an obesity drug.
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March 26, 2025
Ex-CEO Says McGuireWoods Can't Rehash Immunity Appeal
McGuireWoods LLP and one of its former partners are rehashing immunity defenses in a last-ditch effort to dodge a long-running defamation case, the former CEO of a managed care organization told the North Carolina Court of Appeals in seeking to have the case kicked back down to the trial court.
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March 25, 2025
Healthcare Deals This Week: Merck, J&J And Startups Galore
It's been a busy week for healthcare. Several Big Pharma players inked licensing deals in areas like cardiology and cancer and others said they would up their U.S. manufacturing investments, continuing a growing trend for companies in the space.
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March 25, 2025
Pension Seeks To Opt Class Out Of Cutera Ch. 11 Releases
A pension fund heading up a class action against skin care technology group Cutera has urged a Texas bankruptcy court to find the shareholder has authority to opt all class members out of the company's Chapter 11 plan.
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March 25, 2025
Crowell & Moring Healthcare Vet Jumps To Sheppard Mullin
A longtime Crowell & Moring LLP partner has moved his healthcare-focused practice to Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP's office in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Tuesday.
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March 25, 2025
Merck Betting Up To $2B On China-Developed Cardio Drug
Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc., advised by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Covington & Burling LLP, said on Tuesday it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Cooley LLP-led pharmaceutical company Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. under which Merck will pay up to nearly $2 billion to the Chinese pharmaceutical business.
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March 25, 2025
Meitar-Led Navina Wraps $55M Series C Funding Round
Artificial intelligence-powered clinical intelligence company Navina, advised by Meitar, announced on Tuesday that it clinched a $55 million Series C funding round, bringing its total amount raised to $100 million.
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March 25, 2025
4th Circ. Won't Rehear Drug Price-Fixing Class Action
The Fourth Circuit said Tuesday it will not hold a full court rehearing of its panel decision to back the dismissal of a proposed class action accusing drugmakers of conspiring and inflating the price of a medication for Huntington's disease, a suit the panel called "shaky at best."
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March 24, 2025
Kenvue, J&J Must Face Investor Suit Over FDA Concerns
Consumer health products business Kenvue Inc. and former parent company Johnson & Johnson cannot escape a consolidated lawsuit accusing the companies of failing to warn investors about the potential ineffectiveness of leading products like Tylenol and Sudafed ahead of Kenvue's initial public offering, a New Jersey federal judge ruled on Monday.
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March 24, 2025
Fla. Judge OKs $19.3M In Spinal Products Noncompete Suit
A Florida federal judge approved a $19.3 million judgment against the owner of a distributor and his affiliated companies, finding that he owes damages for breaching an exclusive sales agreement with a spinal products manufacturer in a case with a "tortured history" that lasted for more than six years.
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March 24, 2025
Residents Rip Hospital Co.'s 'Scorched-Earth' Sanctions Bid
A proposed class of Connecticut residents pursuing antitrust claims against Hartford HealthCare Corp. slammed the company's bid to sanction them for seeking judicial enforcement of a document exchange deal the parties had reached, arguing that sanctions would only complicate discovery rather than help it along.
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March 24, 2025
Norton Rose, Latham Steer Alcon's $430M Lensar Buy
Eye care company Alcon, advised by Norton Rose Fulbright, unveiled on Monday an agreement to purchase medical technology developer Lensar, which is represented by Latham & Watkins LLP, for up to $430 million.
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March 21, 2025
Bausch & Lomb Says Amcor Must Pay For Botched Bottles
A packaging company evaded quality controls to deliver defective plastic bottles that caused a slowdown in manufacturing at a Bausch & Lomb facility, the eye care company has claimed in a complaint filed in Michigan federal court.
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March 20, 2025
Judge Won't Let Meijer Appeal Takeda's Arbitration Mandate
A Massachusetts federal judge refused Thursday to let Meijer immediately appeal his order letting Takeda Pharmaceutical force the grocery chain into arbitration and out of its role as a representative of a proposed class of direct purchasers suing over delayed generics to a constipation drug.
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March 20, 2025
Medical Malpractice Insurers Ink $1.3B Merger Deal
Physician-owned medical malpractice insurer The Doctors Company has agreed to acquire ProAssurance Corp. in a deal valued at approximately $1.3 billion, in what the company said will create a combined entity with approximately $12 billion in assets.
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March 20, 2025
Minn. Bill Seeks Millionaire Tax To Offset Medicaid Cuts
Minnesota would create a new tax bracket for individual income above $1 million and set the tax rate at a level to offset estimated changes in federal Medicaid funding under legislation introduced Thursday in the state Senate.
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March 19, 2025
AI Chatbot Co. LivePerson Beats Shareholder Suit For Good
A New York federal judge on Wednesday tossed for good a consolidated shareholder class action alleging that chatbot developer LivePerson Inc. misled investors about its post-COVID financial performance and the purported success of WildHealth, a health-focused company it acquired.
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March 19, 2025
Sotera Beats Shareholder Suit Over Sterigenics Emissions
Life sciences company Sotera Health has beaten a shareholder suit alleging it made a series of false and misleading statements about its environmental controls and liability exposure from numerous lawsuits against subsidiary Sterigenics, with the court ruling the plaintiffs have not shown the company intended to deceive the public.
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March 19, 2025
NC Captive Insurer's Owner Can't Shirk Self-Dealing Claims
North Carolina's business court has largely rejected a majority shareholder's efforts to curtail claims he seized control of a captive insurance company only to run it into the ground, finding the suit sufficiently ties him to unpaid premiums that dried up the insurer's sole source of revenue.
Expert Analysis
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: June Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers two recent decisions from the Third and Tenth Circuits, and identifies practice tips around class action settlements and standing in securities litigation.
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The Current State Of Healthcare Transaction Reviews In Calif.
As of April, certain healthcare transactions in California have been subject to additional notification compliance requirements, and complying with these new rules could significantly delay and discourage some deals, says Andrew Demetriou at Husch Blackwell.
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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.