Deals & Corporate Governance

  • February 13, 2025

    Mallinckrodt Fails To Halt Airgas' Generic Nitric Oxide Drug

    A Delaware federal judge has rejected Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals' attempt to block French industrial gas company Airgas Healthcare from selling a generic version of its inhaled nitric oxide treatment, saying Mallinckrodt didn't show enough evidence that Airgas infringed its patents or that it would suffer irreparable harm.

  • February 13, 2025

    Paul Hastings, Cooley Lead Obesity-Focused Aardvark's IPO

    Obesity-focused Aardvark Therapeutics Inc. began trading Thursday after pricing a $94 million initial public offering at the bottom of its range, represented by Paul Hastings LLP and underwriters' counsel Cooley LLP, joining a string of biotechnology firms to go public recently.

  • February 12, 2025

    Bausch Health Beats Suit Over 'Faking' Financial Stability

    Pharmaceutical company Bausch Health Cos. Inc. and its top brass have beaten, for now, a proposed class action accusing them of misleading shareholders about threats to the company's financial stability, with a New Jersey federal judge finding Wednesday that most of the challenged statements in the complaint are inactionable.

  • February 12, 2025

    Supply Co. Files Failsafe $387M Suit Amid Threat Of Dismissal

    A medical supply procurement company has re-upped claims that a pharmaceutical middleman cut it out of a billion-dollar deal with the U.K. government to sell COVID-19 tests after newly unveiled information threatened to derail the long-running litigation.

  • February 11, 2025

    Takeaways From This Week's Healthcare Earnings

    A host of pharmaceutical companies posted earnings this past week, with executives touching on near term growth plans and potential cost-cutting measures on calls with investors.

  • February 11, 2025

    Research Org Faces Investor Suit Over Customer Cost-Cutting

    Clinical research organization Icon PLC has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action in New York federal court, alleging it misled investors about a slowdown in demand the company experienced due to customers implementing drastic cost-reduction measures that involved research and development expenditures.

  • February 11, 2025

    Fla. Judge OKs $7M Deal In Health Data Breach Class Action

    A Florida federal judge Tuesday granted final approval of a $7 million class action settlement as part of multidistrict litigation over the theft of personal information from millions of U.S. citizens in a health data breach linked to a Russian ransomware group.

  • February 11, 2025

    Novartis To Buy US Pharma Biz Anthos For Up To $3.1B

    Novartis AG said Tuesday that it plans to buy Anthos Therapeutics Inc. for up to $3.1 billion, allowing the Swiss pharmaceutical heavyweight to return a drug that originated at the company back into its portfolio of cardiovascular therapies.

  • February 10, 2025

    Pharma Co. Misled Investors On Depression Drug, Suit Says

    Brain disease drugmaker Neumora Therapeutics Inc. has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging that the company and its initial public offering underwriters failed to disclose prior to the $250 million IPO that Neumora's clinical trial for a depression treatment was very unlikely to yield promising results.

  • February 10, 2025

    UnitedHealth Says Fed Suit Imperils Deal's Many Benefits

    UnitedHealth Group and home health and hospice giant Amedisys Inc. responded to the U.S. Department of Justice's merger challenge Friday by telling a Maryland federal judge that the government is taking quotes out of context, focusing on "artificially narrow geographic markets" and misjudging market realities.

  • February 07, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Latham, Skadden

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Triumph Group goes private via Berkshire Partners and Warburg Pincus affiliates, alternative asset manager TPG buys Altus Power, Globus Medical buys Nevro Corp., and Honeywell separates its automation and aerospace technology businesses, resulting in the formation of three distinct companies.

  • February 06, 2025

    Drug Cos. Urge Full Fed. Circ. To Hear Teva Orange Book Row

    The branded pharmaceutical industry is lining up behind a legal effort from Israeli drugmaker Teva that wants the full Federal Circuit to hear a dispute over delisting patents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book.

  • February 06, 2025

    GSK's Zantac Woes Gave Investors Heartburn, Suit Says

    The maker of heartburn and acid reflux relief tablet Zantac has been hit with a shareholder suit in Pennsylvania federal court alleging that the company suffered stock price losses after it was revealed that for nearly 40 years the company knew that Zantac contained high levels of a cancer-causing compound.

  • February 06, 2025

    Globus Medical Buys Device-Maker Nevro In $250M Deal

    Musculoskeletal solutions company Globus Medical, advised by Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, on Thursday announced plans to buy Latham & Watkins LLP-led medical device company Nevro Corp. in an all-cash deal with an equity value of roughly $250 million.

  • February 06, 2025

    Arnall Golden Hires Home Care & Hospice CEO In DC

    Arnall Golden Gregory LLP has hired the former head of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, to join its Washington, D.C., office after nearly 40 years with the organization, the firm announced Tuesday.

  • February 05, 2025

    Wachtell, Skadden Guide Becton's Bid To Sell Diagnostics Biz

    Becton Dickinson and Co. has agreed to divest its biosciences and diagnostics unit in order to focus more resources on medical technology and maximize shareholder value, the company said on Wednesday.

  • February 05, 2025

    Proskauer Fights Another DQ Bid In NJ Hospital Antitrust Suit

    A New Jersey federal magistrate judge was right to allow Proskauer Rose LLP to continue as counsel for RWJBarnabas Health Inc. since the firm's prior advice to CarePoint Health on its use of COVID-19 relief funds is unrelated to the antitrust lawsuit currently playing out between the two companies, according to the firm.

  • February 05, 2025

    Activist Nominates 4 Director Candidates To Kenvue Board

    Activist investor Starboard Value LP on Wednesday unveiled its slate of four director candidates to be nominated to consumer products company Kenvue Inc.'s board of directors, saying that significant changes to the board are necessary to ensure the company is managed and overseen in a manner consistent with the best interests of its shareholders.

  • February 04, 2025

    McKesson, Others Beat Indirect Drug Reseller Price-Fix Suit

    A Pennsylvania federal judge permanently tossed antitrust claims from indirect generic-drug resellers who alleged distributors like McKesson Corp. and AmerisourceBergen colluded with manufacturers to fix prices of many medications, writing Monday the plaintiffs fail to show the existence of such an agreement between drugmakers and distributors.

  • February 04, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Grapples With Extensions On Reissued Patents

    The Federal Circuit is set to decide when a reissued patent actually expires after fielding arguments Tuesday morning from Merck and the generic-drug makers who are trying to break the pharmaceutical giant's hold on a blockbuster drug that counteracts the effects of anesthesia.

  • February 04, 2025

    McKesson Paying $850M For Top Stake In Eye Health Co.

    Irving, Texas, healthcare services company McKesson Corp. said Tuesday it had agreed to buy a controlling interest in PRISM Vision, an ophthalmology services provider, from private equity firm Quad-C for $850 million. 

  • February 04, 2025

    Biotechs Line Up Backups Amid Uncertainty

    In an uncertain environment, biotech companies are pursuing multiple opportunities at the same time, leaning into an old but increasingly popular strategy that gives them leverage and options when striking deals.

  • February 04, 2025

    Healthcare REIT Closes $159M Life Sciences Campus Sale

    Diversified Healthcare Trust sold off a three-building life sciences campus in San Diego for $159 million as the healthcare-focused REIT looks to pay down debt.

  • February 03, 2025

    Calif. OTA Denies Sales Tax Refund For Drug System Parts

    A biopharmaceutical company is not eligible for refunds of sales and use taxes for components of a diabetes drug delivery system that it developed but was never federally approved, the California Office of Tax Appeals said in a ruling released Monday.

  • January 31, 2025

    Pharmacy Escapes Novo Nordisk's Suit Over Ozempic

    A Florida federal judge has tossed a lawsuit by Novo Nordisk trying to stop a compounding pharmacy from dispensing drugs with the same active ingredient as Nordisk weight loss and diabetes drugs, finding that the drugmaker's claims are preempted by federal law.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Use May Trigger False Claims Act's Public Disclosure Bar

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    The likely use of publicly available artificial intelligence tools to detect government fraud by combing through large data sets will raise complex questions about a False Claims Act provision that prohibits the filing of claims based on previously disclosed information, say Nick Peterson and Spencer Brooks at Wiley Rein.

  • Beware Privacy Risks In Training AI Models With Health Data

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    Because data used to train artificial intelligence models may be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or other regulations, users of these models should conduct proper diligence to avoid costly compliance failures, say Neha Matta and Barbara Bennett at Frost Brown.

  • Unpacking GAO's FY 2023 Bid Protest Report

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    The U.S. Government Accountability Office's recent bid protest report reflects an increase in sustained protests, illustrating that disappointed offerors may see little reason to refrain from seeking corrective action — but there is more to the story, say Aron Beezley and Patrick Quigley at Bradley Arant.

  • How Fla. Bankruptcy Ruling May Affect Equity Owners

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    A Florida bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Vital Pharmaceuticals — which rejected the Third Circuit’s Majestic Star decision that determined a bankrupt corporation’s flow-through status was not protected by the automatic stay — may significantly affect how equity owners can mitigate the impact of flow-through structures in bankruptcy, say Eric Behl-Remijan and Natasha Hwangpo at Ropes & Gray.

  • 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.

  • Attorneys, Law Schools Must Adapt To New Era Of Evidence

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    Technological advancements mean more direct evidence is being created than ever before, and attorneys as well as law schools must modify their methods to account for new challenges in how this evidence is collected and used to try cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • ESG Around The World: The UK

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    Following Brexit, the U.K. has adopted a different approach to regulating environmental, social and governance factors from the European Union — an approach that focuses on climate disclosures by U.K.-regulated entities, while steering clear of the more ambitious objectives pursued by the EU, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • Tips For Litigating Against Pro Se Parties In Complex Disputes

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    Litigating against self-represented parties in complex cases can pose unique challenges for attorneys, but for the most part, it requires the same skills that are useful in other cases — from documenting everything to understanding one’s ethical duties, says Bryan Ketroser at Alto Litigation.

  • It's Time To Prescribe Frameworks For AI-Driven Health Care

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    As health care providers begin to adopt artificial intelligence in clinical settings, new legal and regulatory challenges are emerging, with the critical issue being balancing AI's benefits and innovations in health care while ensuring patient safety and provider accountability, say attorneys at Kirkland.

  • Preparing For Higher Health Transaction Standards In Calif.

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    The California Office of Health Care Affordability's revised draft regulations on the reporting of health care transactions incorporate useful improvements to the regulatory scheme, but also contain provisions that may cause concerns for parties contemplating covered transactions, says Andrew Demetriou at Husch Blackwell.

  • How Ill. Supreme Court Could Shape Statutory Violation Cases

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    In Fausett v. Walgreens, the Illinois Supreme Court will take up the question of whether a violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act satisfies the injury-in-fact requirement, and any outcome could significantly change the litigation landscape in Illinois, say Donald Patrick Eckler and Joshua Zhao at Freeman Mathis.

  • Pro Bono Work Is Powerful Self-Help For Attorneys

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    Oct. 22-28 is Pro Bono Week, serving as a useful reminder that offering free legal help to the public can help attorneys expand their legal toolbox, forge community relationships and create human connections, despite the challenges of this kind of work, says Orlando Lopez at Culhane Meadows.

  • Playing In A Rock Cover Band Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Performing in a classic rock cover band has driven me to hone several skills — including focus, organization and networking — that have benefited my professional development, demonstrating that taking time to follow your muse outside of work can be a boon to your career, says Michael Gambro at Cadwalader.