Legal News

U.S. drug giant Merck is shuttering its coronavirus vaccine development “after early trial data showed [its pair of vaccines] failed to generate immune responses comparable to natural infection or existing vaccines.”...By: Robins Kaplan LLP

In recent years, online platforms have been the subject of numerous investigations by competition authorities, at both the European Union (EU) and French levels and elsewhere. Please see full Publication below for more information....By: Allen & Overy LLP

Google has threatened to pull its search engine from the entirety of the Australian continent “if the government approved legislation that would force tech companies to pay for journalism shared on their platforms.” Facebook made a similar threat to “block users in Australia from posting or sharing links to news if the bill passed.”...By: Robins Kaplan LLP

On December 19, 2020, China's National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") and the Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") jointly issued the Measures for the Security Review of Foreign Investments ("New FISR Measures"), which aim to safeguard Chinese national security by scrutinising certain foreign investment transactions into China. The New FISR Measures are not the first rules issued by the Chinese government to address potential national security issues posed by foreign investments into...B...

A Tale of Two Years - While we continue to absorb and understand the worldwide pandemic shockwaves of 2020, trying to encapsulate the vicissitudes of the past year in an annual recap is daunting. Early weeks of the pandemic created an almost inconceivable shift in dealmaking – lawyers and advisors conditioned to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches with clients were suddenly staring at each other’s faces on (interminable) Zoom calls....By: Cooley LLP

Fortis Advisors, LLC v. Dematic Corp., C.A. No. N18C-12-104 AML [CCLD] (Del. Super. Nov. 18, 2020) - As this decision illustrates, Delaware trial courts have a variety of sanction options available when it comes to violations of court orders or discovery rules, such as the failure to adequately prepare a Rule 30(b)(6) deponent....By: Morris James LLP

General Trends in Life Sciences M&A - If 2019 was the year of life sciences mega-deals, 2020 was the year of COVID-19, as the global pandemic permeated every aspect of the dealmaking landscape, with the life sciences sector being no exception. COVID-19 drove unprecedented levels of collaboration among biopharmaceutical companies seeking to develop a vaccine, leading to an accelerated research and development process that allowed not just one—but two—vaccines to be approved by the FDA in...By...

AB Stable VIII LLC v. MAPS Hotels and Resorts One LLC, C.A. No. 2020-0310-JTL (Del. Ch. Nov. 30, 2020) - Parties to a sale and purchase agreement (“SPA”) had planned to close a deal to sell fifteen luxury hotels for $5.8 billion. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe in early 2020 and battered the hotel industry, the buyer terminated the SPA....By: Morris James LLP

Even after New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s New York “PAUSE” program was replaced by the New York “FORWARD” program and its related executive orders (permitting both essential and non-essential projects to resume), many public and private improvement construction projects remained suspended. Now, more than six months after implementation of the New York Forward program, many public improvement and private improvement projects are belatedly coming back “online” with a vengeance!...By: ...

The year 2020 was an eventful one in the world of healthcare antitrust. The year began with the announcement of the precedent-setting settlement of the California Attorney General’s action against Sutter Health and ended with the settlement of multi-district antitrust litigation against the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (and its member Blues)....By: Akerman LLP - Health Law Rx