The Ninth Circuit recently weighed in on the appeal of a False Claims Act lawsuit from a relator against Medtronic. In this case, the relator alleges that Medtronic, Inc.: (1) Engaged in “fraud-on-the-FDA” when obtaining clearance for several devices used in spinal fusion surgeries; (2) …›
In recent years, there have been various antitrust investigations in the pharmaceutical sector resulting in decisions of the European Commission (EC) and the European Courts.[1] In two recent rulings – “Lundbeck”[2] and “Paroxetine”[3] – the European Court of Justice (ECJ) dealt with settlement agreements …›
While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledges the impact COVID-19 has had on the healthcare industry, CMS does not have the authority to postpone the deadline for Sunshine Act reporting. Accordingly, March 31, 2021, remains the deadline for reporting for 2020. …›
On January 28, 2021, the United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ) announced an $18.25 million settlement with athenahealth Inc. (“Athena”) to resolve allegations that Athena violated the False Claims Act by paying impermissible kickbacks related to its electronic health records (EHR) product. At the …›
Matthew Chivvis, life sciences IP litigation partner in Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office led session 5 of our course on Legal Topics for Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Start Ups. Matthew discussed the Hatch-Waxman and Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act for generics and biosimilars. …›
The GSAS Harvard Biotech Club and Morrison & Foerster course on Legal Topics for Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Start Ups features a combination of lectures and interactive workshops and is designed for students, post-docs, entrepreneurs, and investors with life sciences and tech backgrounds to learn …›
“What can be a better day to talk about the complex CRISPR/Cas9 patent landscape than the big day that the Nobel Prize was awarded to pioneers of this revolutionary technology? The story of the continuing dispute on the fundamental CRISPR/Cas9 patents offers a lot …›
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published the latest revision to its Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) on June 30, 2020. According to the Executive Summary, in this revision, nearly all of the 27 chapters have been updated to incorporate new …›
The ability of life sciences companies to rely on patent protection for diagnostic methods has been eroded over the last ten years, although recent court decisions evidence a rebuilding framework. While courts have consistently invalidated diagnostic methods as lacking patent eligibility, claims re-framed as …›
This week, on August 3, 2020, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., which resolved two questions regarding the standards to be applied for non-competition agreements and disputes between businesses in California. The first was whether a …›