A federal judge in Maine has put the brakes on a pilot program that would have enabled biopharma companies to offer rebates instead of up-front discounts as part of the 340B program beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

Every year seems to introduce novel approaches to litigation when it comes to product liability and other theories of harm from medical devices, and 2025 was no exception. One of the more interesting cases was CLF 007 v. Cooper Surgical, which broke new ground for its handling of non-existent state legal precedent.

Six individuals, including an investment banker, face multiple U.S. charges stemming from an alleged $41 million insider-trading scheme, plus stock manipulation schemes involving biopharma companies. The charges are related to three overlapping securities fraud schemes that occurred between June 2020 and February 2024.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Dec. 23 that Bryan Scott McMillen has agreed to pay a total of more than $140,000 due to allegations of insider trading in connection with Boston Scientific Corp.’s acquisition of Apollo Endosurgery Inc. The failure of federal authorities to prosecute McMillan under the criminal code may be a reflection of the relatively small sums he had illicitly obtained in the transaction. A Department of Justice investigation resulted in a conviction for $1 billion in health care fraud.

Sandoz Inc. came out the big winner Nov. 18 when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit wiped out $39 million in infringement damages a jury had awarded to Allergan plc. Sandoz overcame “the doubly high burden of persuading us to overturn a jury verdict of no invalidity,” the appellate court said in its precedential opinion.

A jury has returned a verdict of infringement against Apple Inc., as part of a series of patent disputes with Masimo Corp., producing a damages award of $634 million which is seen in some quarters as an indicator that Masimo has the momentum against Apple.

The U.S. FDA once again has a leadership gap at the top of its drug center, which already has been ravaged this year by massive terminations, resignations and retirements of senior leaders. George Tidmarsh, a biopharma industry veteran who’s helmed CDER for a little more than three months, resigned effective immediately Nov. 2 after being placed on administrative leave two days earlier amid a Department of Health and Human Services probe.

Patent litigation doesn’t always create outlandish damages awards but when it does, the outlandishness typically trends toward inordinately large sums. This was decidedly not the case in the Federal Circuit hearing in a patent lawsuit pitting Intuitive Surgical Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., against Rex Medical LP, of Conshohocken, Pa., given the damages awarded to Rex amounted to a mere $1.

A yearslong bipartisan effort to end the patent-eligibility chaos the U.S. Supreme Court created more than a decade ago could finally come to fruition with the current Congress.