Life Sciences

Our understanding of your goals defines how we do business.

• Flexibility and creativity in pricing and no surprises in your legal bills.
• Superior responsiveness and service delivery.
• Sophisticated, high-quality advice delivered in a way that lets business people make business decisions.
• Business network collaboration to get deals done—beyond the legal work.

We know your industry. We represent hundreds of life sciences and health care innovation companies, as well as investors and people who provide them financing and services.

• Subject matter experts in all areas impacting life sciences and health care innovation, including debt and equity financing, securities compliance, governance, mergers and acquisitions, joint venture, minority investment, patents, licensing and tech transfer, trade secrets and non-competes, employment, supply chain and litigation.
• Integrated approach to addressing data access/rights, health law, regulatory, and intellectual property issues for digital health companies.
• Negotiation of sophisticated deals opposite the largest law firms coast to coast.
• Deep connections within the industry, including national and international venture investors, private equity groups and individuals in high-level leadership positions in the organizations at the forefront of the industry.
• Multiple team members with national recognition for outstanding service and expertise from BTI Consulting Group and IAM Patent 1000.

We bring lessons learned from decades of experience. We’ve worked with the life sciences industry since its earliest beginnings, incorporating Medtronic out of a garage in 1957.

Representative Cases

Corporate Transactions

Closed more than 75 deals worth over $1.6 billion this past year. Notable relationships are described below:

• Represent Mayo Clinic in a number of investment and technology commercialization transactions. In addition, Mayo Clinic has referred us to several businesses commercializing Mayo Clinic technology.
• General corporate and intellectual property representation of Bio-Techne, including strategic transactions with numerous private businesses globally. Recent acquisitions include Zephyrus Biosciences and Advanced Cell Diagnostics ($250 million cash and $75 million contingent consideration).
• Represent several biopharma development companies, including Cougar Biotechnology, Inc., Talon Therapeutics, Inc. and Nile Therapeutics, Inc., in connection with general corporate matters, securities compliance and several corporate financing transactions.
• Represented Midwest Dental in 110 acquisitions in 17 states.
• Closed 23 acquisitions for Numotion as well as provided corporate, employment and regulatory advice.
• Represented AccuMed in the acquisition of business. Continued general corporate representation, including the refinancing of AccuMed’s senior and mezzanine debt and a product line divestiture to a strategic acquiror; exit at end of 2016.
• Corporate, finance and transactional representation for Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., including a public offering of common stock and its IPO in which CSI became a public company through a reverse merger with Replidyne, Inc.
• Represent Bioventus in several acquisitions, other strategic transactions and general corporate projects.
• Represent Medtronic, the largest medical device manufacturer in the world, on hundreds of growth transactions, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; capital markets transactions; strategic investments involving preferred and common equity; secured, unsecured and convertible debt; acquisition options; rights of first refusal/negotiation and distribution, manufacturing/supply and IP license agreements.
• General corporate representation of AGA Medical Holdings, Inc., including a $300 million recapitalization resulting from a shareholder dispute and the sale of the company to St. Jude Medical for $1.1 billion.
• General corporate representation of MinuteClinic, including its sale to CVS Pharmacy for over $100 million.
• General corporate representation of HealthFitness Corporation, including its sale to Trustmark Mutual Holding Company for $97 million.

Litigation

• Represented Vascular Solutions’ CEO, Howard Root, and obtained complete acquittal in month-long federal jury trial based on alleged off-label promotion and conspiracy. The case is one of the first to establish clear limits on the FDA’s authority to prosecute off-label promotion, by drawing a distinct line between “truthful” and “misleading” speech.
• Represent Mayo Clinic and its physicians in litigation matters, including numerous malpractice cases and commercial disputes.
• Defense of AGA Medical in a licensing dispute with the son of a company founder, who sought more than $150 million. Based on a strong trial performance, the court rejected the plaintiff’s liability and damages theories, allowing AGA to negotiate a favorable settlement.
• Successful representation of Medtronic in patent and trademark infringement dispute against a competitor that tried to design around Medtronic’s patents in order to market a surgical drill tool that was visually indistinguishable from Medtronic’s drill tool. The parties negotiated an early settlement that required the competitor to exit the market.
• Represented ACIST Medical Systems in enforcing its trade secret rights against a competitor after ACIST had shared a new product idea with a potential vendor under a non-disclosure agreement. After potential vendor announced plans to create a similar product, we filed suit on behalf of ACIST and negotiated a settlement that required the competitor to cease using ACIST’s trade secrets.

Intellectual Property—Patents & Patent Litigation

• Intellectual property representation, including prosecution of several patent applications in global patent offices, assessments of patent infringement risk, negotiation and development of license agreements and trademark, copyrights and IP transaction matters.
• Represented a large medical technology, services and solutions company to investigate and quash the rampant infringement of its patent portfolio protecting its market-leading Slide-On Endosheath System. We successfully enforced U.S. patent rights to end infringement in the U.S. and then proceeded to enforce patents worldwide. In the latest of those proceedings, brought suit in France against Xmed S.p.A. and its French distributor Pouret Medical. Through settlement with Pouret Medical, stopped the infringing product from sale in France. We are currently working with French co-counsel to seek further enforcement of the client’s patent rights in France.
• Currently defending a large medical technology company in patent infringement litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois regarding infusion pumps. We’re defending the lawsuit on multiple fronts, including patentability challenges under the Supreme Court’s Mayo/Alice standard at the district court and coordinated inter partes review before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
• Represented a medical device provider in trademark enforcement and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) proceedings. In one recent case, the defendant changed the infringing advertising materials in response to our preliminary injunction motion.
• Represented a medical device company in a lawsuit to protect its trade secrets. Our client developed a new technology and entered into a non-disclosure agreement with a potential vendor. The vendor later applied for a patent that incorporated our client’s technology. We filed suit and achieved a settlement that keeps the competitor out of our client’s market.

Health Care & Regulatory

• Represent health systems, managed care organizations, medical device companies, single-specialty and multi-specialty physician groups, dental groups, practice management companies, pharmacies, ambulatory surgical centers and health care providers and suppliers on regulatory compliance advice on Stark, antikickback, HIPAA and Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement issues.
• Clinical trial advice including writing and negotiating investigator agreements, negotiating with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on IDEs, training and advising on trial compliance, advising on adverse event reporting, reviewing protocols for legal issues and advising in clinical trial data reports.
• Preparation of marketing applications to FDA, and negotiation with FDA on approvals including training on advertising law and practices and reviewing promotional literature.

Licensing

• Represented Medtronic in numerous in- and out-licensing transactions, including negotiating Medtronic’s access to drugs and therapies of Abbott Laboratories and other drug manufacturers for use with Medtronic’s drug-eluting stents and balloons.
• Experience in negotiating with universities, research institutions and government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• Represented QuantaLife, Inc. in its licensing of critical patented technology from Japan Science and Technology Agency.
• Audited Bio-Techne’s Corporation’s key license agreements and revised its license templates.
• Developed and implemented the licensing arrangement for Surmodics, Inc. coating technology.

Trademarks

• Over 650 active U.S. and foreign trademark applications and registrations relating to life sciences products and services.
• Attorneys with in-house experience in advertising agencies.
• Successfully prosecuted and defended advertising actions before the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau.
• Provide advertising clearance and regulatory advice relating to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and FDA matters.

Main Contacts

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