Deals & Corporate Governance
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February 23, 2024
Eye Care Tech Co. Gets Go-Ahead For April Sale In Ch. 11
A Texas bankruptcy judge said Friday she will approve sale procedures that will put a troubled optometry software maker on the block in April, after the debtor said it will give creditors a few more days to respond if it decides to name a stalking horse bidder.
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February 22, 2024
North Carolina Hospitals Can't Exit Monopoly Claims
Two healthcare companies cannot escape a consolidated antitrust suit claiming that a North Carolina hospital system drove up the price of health insurance for public employees, as a federal judge has found that the claims plausibly allege that the anti-competitive conduct occurred within the time window to sue.
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February 22, 2024
Biotech VC Firm ORI Capital Closes $260M Fund
Biotech venture capital firm ORI Capital announced Thursday that it has closed a $260 million fund to invest in early-stage biotech companies globally.
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February 22, 2024
Locke Lord Settles Failed Health Plan Malpractice Suit
Locke Lord LLP has reached a settlement to resolve a health plan fiduciary's malpractice suit alleging the firm provided bad legal advice that doomed the plan, permanently ending an Illinois federal suit first filed in 2018.
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February 21, 2024
Actelion Cites FDA Safety Rules Against Tracleer Antitrust Suit
Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. said federal rules controlling distribution of potentially dangerous drugs spare it from antitrust litigation over its hypertension drug Tracleer, arguing it was required to deny needed samples to would-be generic competitors until they presented the right certification of safeguards.
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February 21, 2024
Calif. Bill Would Let AG Audit Private Equity Healthcare Deals
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Jim Wood have filed legislation that will give the state's AG oversight of private equity and hedge fund acquisitions of healthcare facilities, saying that private equity is causing soaring consumer costs.
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February 21, 2024
JPMorgan Got $400M Before Inovalon Sale, Del. Justices Hear
Inovalon didn't properly disclose that investors that bought the healthcare data company in 2021 paid $400 million in fees to its financial adviser, a JPMorgan unit, before the transaction, a reason enough to revive a lawsuit challenging the $7.3 billion acquisition, counsel for stockholders told Delaware's Supreme Court Wednesday.
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February 20, 2024
US Trustee Wants Sorrento Ch. 11 Tossed Or Relocated
The U.S. Trustee's Office has moved to have Sorrento Therapeutics' Chapter 11 case dismissed, alleging the biopharmaceutical company manufactured a venue in Texas bankruptcy court, even as the debtor asked for court approval to sell off its assets to its CEO under a revised reorganization plan.
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February 20, 2024
Biology AI Startup Bioptimus Raises $35M Seed Round
Artificial intelligence startup Bioptimus has raised $35 million to build an AI foundational model focused on biology, the company announced Tuesday.
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February 20, 2024
$71M Deal Proposed To End Premier Inc. Share Exchange Suit
Healthcare-purchasing giant Premier Inc. has agreed to a $71 million settlement of a derivative stockholder suit in Delaware's Chancery Court that challenged a $473.5 million payout in a 2020 restructuring, with stockholder attorneys seeking an award of up to $14 million in fees.
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February 20, 2024
Latham Adds Cooley Company Growth Pros In San Francisco
Latham & Watkins LLP is expanding its West Coast corporate team, announcing Tuesday that it is bringing in a pair of Cooley LLP experts in emerging-growth companies as partners in its San Francisco Bay Area offices.
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February 16, 2024
Chromocell Hits Stock Markets Following $6.6M IPO
Clinical-stage biotechnology company Chromocell Therapeutics Corp. began trading publicly on Friday after raising $6.6 million in its initial public offering, becoming the latest in a flurry of biotech IPOs.
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February 15, 2024
Citadel Securities, Others Beat Biotech Spoofing Suit, For Now
A New York federal judge has adopted in full a magistrate judge's recommendation to toss a suit accusing several broker-dealers, including Citadel Securities LLC and Virtu Americas LLC, of carrying out a spoofing scheme that repeatedly drove a biotechnology company's share price down, saying he agrees with the report's finding that the suit fails to show that the alleged scheme caused lower stock prices in every instance.
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February 15, 2024
HCA Says NC Hospital's Standard Of Care Hasn't Changed
For-profit hospital network HCA Management Services has fired back at claims of rampant mismanagement at its Asheville, North Carolina, hospital, saying the state attorney general's office has made accusations about the quality of care that aren't based on the terms agreed to when HCA bought the hospital four years ago.
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February 15, 2024
Invitae Can Use Cash Collateral For Speedy Ch. 11
Bankrupt genetic testing company Invitae Corp. on Thursday got the approval of a New Jersey bankruptcy court for routine first-day motions as it moves toward a planned April auction of its assets.
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February 15, 2024
Freenome Raises $254M For Early Cancer Detection Tests
Cancer-focused biotechnology company Freenome said Thursday it has raised $254 million from investors to advance cancer detection tests in its pipeline.
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February 15, 2024
Aurinia Refocusing After Failed Effort To Find A Buyer
Kidney-focused biotech Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is hitting pause on drug development, cutting jobs and initiating a $150 million stock buyback program, the company disclosed in its year-end financial report Thursday.
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February 15, 2024
Lawmakers Push PE Firm For Answers On Steward Health
A group of lawmakers demanded answers from private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management on Thursday over its relationship with financially troubled Steward Health Care-owned hospitals in Massachusetts, saying that Steward's recent collapse is a "textbook example" of the "grave risks" that come with private equity takeover of the healthcare system.
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February 15, 2024
FTC's Khan Calls Healthcare 'Key' To Fight For Competition
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan told a conference of physicians the agency is fighting corporate control at several levels of the healthcare industry, touting the sector as a key battleground in the administration's push for more competition across the economy.
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February 14, 2024
FTC Seeks Info On 'Powerful Middlemen' Amid Drug Shortages
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that they are seeking information on whether legal exemptions for "middlemen" in the generic pharmaceutical market are driving ongoing drug shortages.
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February 14, 2024
Adagio Medical Goes Public In $128M SPAC Merger
Adagio Medical, a catheter ablation tech maker, and Arya Sciences, a special purpose acquisition company, said on Wednesday that they would merge, taking the combined company public at a $128 million value, guided by respective legal adviser Reed Smith and Kirkland.
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February 14, 2024
Pharma Co. Humanigen Gets OK For Ch. 11 Sale
Drug researcher Humanigen Inc. can sell nearly all of its assets to a company formed by its CEO, a Delaware bankruptcy judge ruled Wednesday, after the debtor, the buyer and the official committee of unsecured creditors struck a deal resolving objections to the Chapter 11 sale.
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February 14, 2024
Settlements of 3 Drug Cos. Get Prelim OK In Price-Fixing MDL
A Pennsylvania federal judge granted preliminary approval Wednesday to settlements in which two makers and one distributor of generic drugs agreed to pay a combined $45 million to resolve allegations they colluded to fix the prices of medications, including those used to treat glaucoma, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
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February 14, 2024
Biotech Nabs $200M Via Private Placement, Starts CEO Search
Public gene therapy company enGene Holdings Inc. announced Wednesday that it will sell 20 million of its common shares, raising an anticipated private placement of around $200 million, to fund the development of its lead compound EG-70.
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February 14, 2024
KKR Buys Stake In Health Tech Biz Cotiviti At $10.5B Valuation
Private equity firm KKR & Co. Inc. has agreed to acquire a stake in healthcare analytics company Cotiviti from Veritas Capital, Cotiviti announced Wednesday, in a deal valuing the target at about $10.5 billion.
Expert Analysis
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Time For Law Schools To Rethink Unsung Role Of Adjuncts
As law schools prepare for the fall 2023 semester, administrators should reevaluate the role of the underappreciated, indispensable adjunct, and consider 16 concrete actions to improve the adjuncts' teaching experience, overall happiness and feeling of belonging, say T. Markus Funk at Perkins Coie, Andrew Boutros at Dechert and Eugene Volokh at UCLA.
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Tips For In-House Legal Leaders In A Challenging Economy
Amid today's economic and geopolitical uncertainty, in-house legal teams are running lean and facing increased scrutiny and unique issues, but can step up and find innovative ways to manage outcomes and capitalize on good business opportunities, says Tim Parilla at LinkSquares.
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What Associates Need To Know Before Switching Law Firms
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
The days of staying at the same firm for the duration of one's career are mostly a thing of the past as lateral moves by lawyers are commonplace, but there are several obstacles that associates should consider before making a move, say attorneys at HWG.
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A Case For Sharing Mediation Statements With Counterparties
In light of a potential growing mediation trend of only submitting statements to the mediator, litigants should think critically about the pros and cons of exchanging statements with opposing parties as it could boost the chances of reaching a settlement, says Arthur Eidelhoch at Eidelhoch Mediation.
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Tackling Long-Tail Legacy Liability Risk: A Defendant's Toolkit
Johnson & Johnson was recently rebuffed in its efforts to employ the "Texas Two-Step," which is likely to affect this increasingly popular method to isolate and spin off large asbestos and talc liabilities, but companies have multiple options to reduce long-tail legacy liability risk, says Stephen Hoke at Hoke LLC.
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Challenging Standing In Antitrust Class Actions: Injury-In-Fact
As demonstrated in recent cases, the classic injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing claimed in most antitrust suits is economic harm — and while concrete harm satisfies the requirement, litigants may still be able to challenge whether economic injury has occurred, say Michael Hamburger and Holly Tao at White & Case.
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Preparing For Legal Scrutiny Of Data Retention Policies
Two recent cases involving Google and Meta should serve as a call to action for companies to ensure their data retention policies are updated and properly implemented to the degree of being able to withstand judicial scrutiny, especially as more data is generated by emerging technologies, say Jack Kallus and Labeed Choudhry at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Congress Must Reform PBMs To Lower The Cost Of Insulin
When the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions meets Wednesday to ask why insulin prices are increasing, they should follow the money, and work on curtailing the practices of pharmacy benefit managers that inflate drug prices, says David Balto, a former policy director at the Federal Trade Commission.
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Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEI
National and state bar associations are encouraging attorneys to apply diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the legal profession and beyond, and these associations should take it one step further by formally recognizing ethical duties for attorneys to promote DEI, which could better the legal profession and society, says Elena Mitchell at Moore & Van Allen.
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Data-Driven Insights Are Key To Attracting Today's Clients
As law firm growth slows and competition for clients increases, modern firms must rely on robust data analytics to develop the sector-based expertise and industry insights that clients increasingly prioritize in relationships with counsel, says Lavinia Calvert at Intapp.
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Ghosting In BigLaw: Why Better Feedback Habits Are Needed
Not giving assignments or constructive criticism to junior associates can significantly affect their performance and hours, potentially leading them to leave the firm, but partners can prevent this by asking the right questions and creating a culture of feedback, says Rachel Patterson at Orrick.
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Law Needs A Balance Between Humanism And Formalism
A recent Law360 guest article rightly questions the pretextual pseudo-originalism that permits ideology to masquerade as judicial philosophy, but the cure would kill the patient because directness, simplicity and humanness are achievable without renouncing form or sacrificing stare decisis, says Vanessa Kubota at the Arizona Court of Appeals.
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FTC's Criminal Liaison Unit Enhances Merger Risks
As it enters its second year, the Criminal Liaison Unit within the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition may streamline and sharpen efforts to detect and refer substantive and procedural violations to prosecutors, increasing the chances of a merger review uncovering potential criminal activity, say attorneys at Norton Rose.