Deals & Corporate Governance
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May 06, 2025
Ex-CEO Can't Shake Conviction In COVID Test Kit Fraud Case
The former chief executive of a healthcare software company who touted a $670 million COVID test kit deal that collapsed was denied acquittal Monday by a Newark federal judge who ruled the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable juror to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he had engaged in securities fraud.
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May 06, 2025
Investors Sue West Pharma Over Post-COVID Stock Losses
The New England Teamsters Pension Fund has sued West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. and its top brass, alleging they misled investors by overstating demand for the company's high-margin products and hiding the loss of contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic, causing a stock price drop when the truth was finally revealed.
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May 06, 2025
Catching Up With New Bankruptcy Case Action
Drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. reentered bankruptcy with over $1 billion in debt less than a year after its earlier reorganization plan was approved, e-commerce firm Digital River Marketing Solutions Inc. filed for Chapter 7 with approximately $45.2 million in secured debt, and the owner of a Manhattan condo building filed for Chapter 11 with $32 million in mortgage debt in the face of foreclosure. Here are this week's new bankruptcy cases.
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May 06, 2025
Bristol-Myers GC Hands Over Legal Department To Successor
A longtime Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. lawyer officially took the reins of the legal department on Tuesday amid her predecessor's planned retirement from the pharmaceutical company.
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May 06, 2025
China-US Biotech Dealmaking Likely Safe From Tariff Turmoil
A new hot spot for biotech dealmaking likely won't cool in the coming months, even as the Trump administration's trade policies and economic uncertainty throws cold water on other areas of the industry.
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May 05, 2025
Liquidia Fends Off Indication Challenge In UTC Tyvaso Fight
A D.C. federal court has rejected United Therapeutics Corp.'s challenge to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision allowing Liquidia Technologies Inc. to modify a new drug application to include an additional lung disease indication for a drug competing with UTC's blockbuster lung disease drug Tyvaso.
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May 05, 2025
Rite Aid Hits Bankruptcy Less Than A Year After Previous Ch. 11
Drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. reentered bankruptcy Monday less than a year after its earlier reorganization plan was approved, filing for Chapter 11 protection in New Jersey bankruptcy court with more than $1 billion in debt and plans for an asset sale.
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May 05, 2025
Justices Reject Review Of NLRB's COVID-19 Bonus Pay Order
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied review of a shuttered New Jersey nursing home's challenge to the Third Circuit's enforcement of a National Labor Relations Board decision that found the employer unlawfully slashed or ended COVID-19 bonuses for unionized workers.
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May 05, 2025
Novartis, Incyte Settle Drug Royalty Fight On Eve Of Trial
A Manhattan federal judge put off trial on Monday in a five-year quest by Novartis to recover what it says are $500 million in missing royalties from its agreement to commercialize an Incyte compound used to treat blood cancers, with the sides announcing they reached a settlement.
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May 02, 2025
Healthcare Pro Rejoins Brach Eichler In NJ From Saul Ewing
Brach Eichler LLC welcomed back a former partner who had moved to Saul Ewing LLP last year to serve as vice chair of Brach Eichler's healthcare law practice, the firm announced Friday.
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May 02, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Goodwin, Haynes Boone
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Merck buys SpringWorks Therapeutics, Novartis AG acquires Regulus Therapeutics Inc., Sabre Corp. sells its Hospitality Solutions business to private equity shop TPG, and TWG Global and Mubadala Capital team up to bolster their investments.
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April 29, 2025
Acadia Investors Seek Partial Win, Sanction In Healthcare Suit
Investors suing behavioral health care provider Acadia Healthcare Co. have asked a federal judge to find that they relied on certain alleged misrepresentations before investing in the company after previously moving for sanctions over allegations that the company systematically destroyed pertinent records to stymie their understaffing claims.
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April 29, 2025
This Week's Healthcare Earnings: Tariffs Galore
Tariffs were, unsurprisingly, a major theme on investor calls this past week, as around a dozen healthcare companies released their quarterly financials and kicked off the thick of the earnings season for the industry.
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April 29, 2025
Welltower Reports $6.2B In Q1 Deals, Surpassing 2024 Results
Executives of healthcare real estate investment trust Welltower on Tuesday touted the company's work closing more acquisitions during this year's first quarter than it did in all of 2024, ahead of expected economic uncertainty in the year ahead.
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April 29, 2025
Cooley Life Sciences Ace Rejoins Latham In Bay Area
Latham & Watkins LLP has welcomed back an intellectual property attorney who spent the past nine years at Cooley LLP to bolster its healthcare and life sciences practice, including advising clients about licensing and transactional matters.
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April 28, 2025
Baker Donelson Picks Up Longtime HHS OIG Atty In Maryland
Amanda Copsey, a longtime U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General attorney, has joined Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC as a shareholder in its Baltimore office, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare laws and regulations.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 22, 2025
Judge Approves Prospect Medical's Pa. Hospitals' ClosureÂ
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.
Expert Analysis
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Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary
The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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Cross-Market Implications In FTC's Anesthesia Complaint
The Federal Trade Commission's recent complaint against a private equity firm's acquisition of anesthesiology practices highlights the controversial issue of cross-market harm in health care provider mergers, and could provide important insights into how a court may view such theories of harm, say Christopher Lau and Dina Older Aguilar at Cornerstone Research.
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AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier
Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.
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Cos. Must Adapt To Calif. Immigration Data Privacy Law
California’s recently signed A.B. 947 expands the California Consumer Privacy Act and brings the state in line with other comprehensive privacy laws that address immigration status, meaning companies should make any necessary updates to their processes and disclosures, say Kate Lucente and Matt Dhaiti at DLA Piper.
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Looking For Defense Contract Appeal Trends In Annual Report
A deep dive into the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals annual report for the 2023 fiscal year reveals increases in the number of cases filed, pending motions and expedited or accelerated cases, while the board disposed of fewer cases than in prior fiscal years, say Scott Flesch and Alexandra Prime at Miller & Chevalier.
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Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World
As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.
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ESG Around The World: South Korea
Numerous ESG trends have materialized in South Korea in the past three years, with impacts ranging from greenwashing prevention and carbon neutrality measures to workplace harassment and board diversity initiatives, say Chang Wook Min and Hyun Chan Jung at Jipyong.
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General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI
With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.
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A Look At Successful Bid Protests In FY 2023
Attorneys at Sheppard Mullin look beyond the statistics in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recent annual report on bid protests, sharing their insights about nine categories of sustained protests, gained from reading every fiscal year 2023 decision in which the protester had a positive result.
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Rite Aid's Reasons For Ch. 11 Go Beyond Opioid Suits
Despite opioid-related lawsuits being the perceived reason that pushed Rite Aid into bankruptcy, the company's recent Chapter 11 filing reveals its tenuous position in the pharmaceutical retail market, and only time will tell whether bankruptcy will right-size the company, says Daniel Gielchinsky at DGIM Law.
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Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information
As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.
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Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD
Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.
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AI Use May Trigger False Claims Act's Public Disclosure Bar
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.