Deals & Corporate Governance
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April 30, 2024
PE-Backed Medline Buying Ecolab's Surgical Unit For $950M
Private equity-backed medical supply company Medline said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire the global surgical solutions business of Ecolab Inc. for $950 million in cash.
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April 29, 2024
Boehringer Accused Of Monopolizing Inhaler Product Market
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals has manipulated the U.S. patent and drug approval system to unlawfully block makers of generic inhaler medications, health and welfare funds claimed in a lawsuit filed Monday in Connecticut federal court, arguing that the "availability of generics has tangible cost and life-saving effects."
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April 29, 2024
Deciphera Stock Soars On $2.4B Deal With Japan's Ono
Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday it has agreed to be purchased by Japan's Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. for $2.4 billion, which sent the Waltham, Massachusetts-based cancer drugmaker's stock soaring more than 72%.
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April 26, 2024
Therapy Co. SPAC Investors To Settle Del., Ill. Merger Suits
An attorney for a blank-check company that took ATI Physical Therapy Inc. public told Delaware's Court of Chancery it has agreed to settle two proposed stockholder class actions in conjunction with pending federal class and derivative suits in the Northern District of Illinois.
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April 25, 2024
NC Hospital Leader Condemns FTC's Merger Block Bid
The chief of staff for a North Carolina hospital in the midst of a merger battle ripped the care facility's current owners Thursday in a show of support for new ownership, pleading for federal antitrust regulators to get out of the way lest they usher in "a year long death marked by suffering" for the hospital.
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April 25, 2024
Nursing Agency Urges 4th Circ. To Overturn $9M Wage Ruling
A nurse staffing agency pressed the Fourth Circuit to overturn a lower court's decision ordering the agency to pay workers $9 million in a misclassification suit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor, saying the lower court should have made the government prove the nurses were employees.
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April 25, 2024
Wachtell Steers Perrigo In €275M Unit Sale To Pharma Biz
Healthcare company Perrigo said Thursday that it has agreed to sell its pharmaceutical division for rare diseases to pharmaceutical company Esteve Healthcare SL for €275 million ($295 million) in a deal guided by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Clifford Chance LLP.
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April 24, 2024
Bid To Sanction DOJ Denied In Novel Insider Trading Case
A California federal judge on Tuesday refused to grant an indicted former healthcare CEO's bid to sanction the government in a case accusing him of a novel form of insider trading, saying the CEO failed to show that he was prejudiced by the government interviewing a potential witness without counsel present.
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April 24, 2024
Sheppard Mullin Healthcare Team Adds Crowell & Moring Atty
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP announced the fifth addition to its healthcare industry team this year on Wednesday, welcoming a former Crowell & Moring LLP partner with broad corporate transactional and governance expertise.
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April 24, 2024
Private Equity Lag Continues To Stunt M&A Growth
Large leveraged buyout activity remained muted in the first quarter as the refinancing of old private equity loans took precedence over new loans, contributing to a slower-than-anticipated rebound in overall mergers and acquisitions, according to a new report from data provider PitchBook.
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April 23, 2024
Failure Of Eli Lilly Insulin Deal Won't End Patients' Litigation
The collapse of a massive deal to settle claims Eli Lilly illegally inflated insulin prices may not alter the trajectory of the underlying litigation, as patients are already pressing ahead with a new version of their proposed class action.
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April 23, 2024
GoodRx Hid Revenue Reliance On Kroger, Suit Claims
GoodRx Holdings Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action alleging it concealed from investors the indispensability of its relationship with Kroger, leading to share declines when GoodRx announced revenue would be severely impacted because the grocery chain would no longer be accepting its discount codes.
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April 23, 2024
Virtua Says Trinity Health Won't Pay $12M ER Fight Legal Bill
Virtua claimed Monday in New Jersey federal court that Trinity Health has backed out of an agreement to cover $12 million in counsel fees and costs incurred in a legal fight with a rival healthcare system over Virtua's acquisition of Our Lady of Lourdes Health Care Services from Trinity.
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April 23, 2024
Cutting Costs, Controlling Leverage To Drive Healthcare M&A
Upcoming deal flow in the healthcare industry will be driven by companies looking to bring down costs and improve margins while grappling with circumstances like patent expirations and regulatory scrutiny.
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April 23, 2024
Healthcare Deals This Week: 23andMe, Incyte And More
From a billion-dollar collaboration to a potential go-private proposal, the past week has seen a spur of deal activity in the healthcare industry.
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April 22, 2024
Petersen Health Shouldn't Get LLCs Back, Creditor Says
A loan servicer of bankrupt senior-living company Petersen Health Care has asked a Delaware bankruptcy court to dismiss the Chapter 11 cases of 16 of Petersen's affiliates, saying they could not file for bankruptcy because they were at the time, and still are, in receivership.
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April 22, 2024
Unions Can Refile Tossed ERISA Suit Against Anthem BCBS
A Connecticut federal judge on Monday threw out a suit against insurers Elevance Health Inc., Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and many of their subsidiaries, but said the trustees of two union health plans who claimed the companies were overpaying administrative and medical costs can try again.
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April 22, 2024
NJ Man Convicted In $4.5M State Benefits Scam
A New Jersey man has been convicted for his role in a scheme that saw the theft of millions of dollars from a publicly funded Garden State program aimed to help victims of traumatic brain injuries.
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April 19, 2024
Judge Mulls Axing Biomedical Cos.' $25M Punitive Damages
Not enough evidence supports Skye Orthobiologics' $25.5 million punitive damages award against an ex-employee found to have breached his fiduciary duties by leveraging Skye's proprietary information, a California federal judge has ruled, asking for briefing on whether the proper remedy is to cut the damages or grant a new trial.
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April 19, 2024
Life Sciences Biz NanoString Gets OK For $393M Ch. 11 Sale
Insolvent biotech company NanoString can be sold to scientific instrument maker Bruker Corp., a Delaware bankruptcy judge ruled Friday, after the buyer clinched the winning bid during a 14-hour Chapter 11 auction.
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April 18, 2024
EU Antitrust Chief Says Merger Tool Not A 'Power Grab'
The European Commission's top competition enforcer said Thursday the agency has taken a measured approach to using its newly asserted power to review mergers that fall short of local thresholds, as the European trading bloc's high court mulls a challenge of that authority from DNA sequencing company Illumina.
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April 18, 2024
Doximity Faces Investor Suit Over Slashed Revenue Hopes
Medical professional networking service Doximity Inc., likened to "LinkedIn for doctors," and two of its executives are facing a proposed class action alleging it hurt investors by concealing slowing sales.
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April 18, 2024
Investor Says Healthcare REIT Ties Undercut Lease Terms
An activist investor on Thursday urged shareholders to vote against two of National Health Investors Inc.'s incumbent board members at an annual meeting in May, alleging that conflicts of interest between directors on the board and the company's largest tenant are harming the real estate investment trust.
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April 18, 2024
23andMe Taps Dechert To Review CEO Buyout Proposal
A special committee of genetic testing company 23andMe has engaged Dechert LLP as its legal adviser and Wells Fargo as its financial adviser as it looks to review an anticipated buyout offer from its co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki, according to a statement Thursday.
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April 17, 2024
Walgreens Investors' $36M Deal In Opioid Suit Gets First OK
An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday granted his initial approval of a $36 million settlement to end a stockholder's derivative suit accusing Walgreens and its leadership of failing to limit retail pharmacies from dispensing unreasonable amounts of opioids.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Tales From The Trenches Of Remote Depositions
As practitioners continue to conduct depositions remotely in the post-pandemic world, these virtual environments are rife with opportunities for improper behavior such as witness coaching, scripted testimony and a general lack of civility — but there are methods to prevent and combat these behaviors, say Jennifer Gibbs and Bennett Moss at Zelle.
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What's New In The DOJ-FTC Proposed Merger Guidelines
While this week's merger guidelines proposal from the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice initially appears to reflect well-established principles of antitrust law, a closer examination reveals a stark departure from the last 40 years of antitrust enforcement, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Tide May Be Turning On Texas Two-Step Bankruptcy Strategy
Recent developments in several high-profile bankruptcy cases suggest that the use of the Texas Two-Step to shield solvent companies from tort claims may be falling out of favor, but until the U.S. Supreme Court hears one of these cases the strategy will remain divisive and the subject of increased scrutiny, say attorneys at Rivkin Radler.
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Ways To Balance ESG Initiatives And Antitrust Risks
Since ESG policies often concern systemic issues that require collective action for meaningful results, there are potential antitrust issues that require safeguards to help mitigate risk, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
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Level Up Lawyers' Business Development With Gamification
With employee engagement at a 10-year low in the U.S., there are several gamification techniques marketing and business development teams at law firms can use to make generating new clients and matters more appealing to lawyers, says Heather McCullough at Society 54.
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Mallory Ruling Leaves Personal Jurisdiction Deeply Unsettled
In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway, a closely divided U.S. Supreme Court recently rolled back key aspects of its 2017 opinion in Daimler AG v. Bauman that limited personal jurisdiction, leaving as many questions for businesses as it answers, say John Cerreta and James Rotondo at Day Pitney.
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Recent Provider Relief Fund Audits Are Just The Beginning
Though the Health Resources and Services Administration's initial audits of the Provider Relief Fund program appear to be limited in scope, fund recipients should prepare for additional oversight, scrutiny and disallowances as the HRSA ramps up its efforts, say Brian Lee and Christopher Frisina at Alston & Bird.
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5 Ways Firms Can Rethink Office Design In A Hybrid World
As workplaces across the country adapt to flexible work, law firms must prioritize individuality, amenities and technology in office design, says Kristin Cerutti at Nelson Worldwide.
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Bar Score Is Best Hiring Metric Post-Affirmative Action
After the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling striking down affirmative action admissions policies, law firms looking to foster diversity in hiring should view an applicant's Multistate Bar Examination score as the best metric of legal ability — over law school name or GPA, says attorney Alice Griffin.
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Joint Ventures Given More Edge In Set-Aside Contract Awards
The recent Court of Federal Claims decision in SH Synergy prompted the General Services Administration to remold proposal evaluation schemes to favor mentor-protégé joint ventures, a business structure that has taken over the world of set-aside governmentwide acquisition contracts, say Roger Abbott and Stephen Ramaley at Miles & Stockbridge.
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New Health Data Compliance Considerations For Pa. Lawyers
Given the regularity with which attorneys handle private health information, it is important for Pennsylvania firms to understand recent significant amendments to the state's data breach law, which address information not currently covered by federal law, says Mark Mattioli at Post & Schell.
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Ghosting In BigLaw: How To Come Back From Lack Of Feedback
Junior associates can feel powerless when senior colleagues cut off contact instead of providing useful feedback, but young attorneys can get back on track by focusing on practical professional development and reexamining their career priorities, says Rachel Patterson at Orrick.