Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C. (“HP&M”) is pleased to present its annual report highlighting the leading enforcement actions from 2019 that affect the FDA- and DEA-regulated industries. As the largest boutique law firm dedicated to serving clients in this field, we are keenly aware of …
Subcommittees of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce heard testimony last week from the Government Accountability Office’s Mary Denigan-Macauley and from Janet Woodcock, Director of FDA’s Center of Drug Evaluation and Research, about the state of FDA’s foreign drug establishment inspection program. FDA generally conducts …
On November 5, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani, in a battle over access to government documents. While this represents a small victory for these defendants, …
On November 5, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California added another entry in the long running saga United States ex rel. Campie v. Gilead Sciences, Inc. when it granted the DOJ’s motion to dismiss. We have extensively covered this case …
What do you get when you “cross an approach to discovery à la Inspector Clouseau with a corporate lawyer caricature found in cartoon caption contests?” According to Judge Steven Rau of the District of Minnesota in a 32-page order that required an “exhaustive” 15-page factual …
In a decision that could dramatically change the course of how defendants conduct discussions with the government, a district court judge in the District of Minnesota required a defendant in a False Claims Act (FCA) case to turn over to a qui tam relator the …
Claiming that DMAA (1,3-dimethylamylamine) is a “constituent” of geraniums, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. sold DMAA as a dietary supplement, in products intended for body-builders. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized the products, claiming that DMAA is a food additive because it is not generally recognized …
The last time we blogged on news from a recent pharmaconference.com industry conference about current Good Manufacturing Practice (“GMP by the Sea,” agenda linked here), we provided some cute references to corn pudding recipes (blogpost linked here). Despite universally positive feedback about those culinary diversions, …
In the August 21 split panel decision issued in Federal Trade Commission v. Credit Bureau Center LLC, the Seventh Circuit held that section 13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTCA”), 15 U.S.C. § 53(b), does not authorize an award of restitution. In overturning its …
After reading OPDP’s latest enforcement letter, we had déjà vu all over again and were transported back to 2016 when we blogged that OPDP was Not Dead Yet. At that time, OPDP had posted two enforcement letters on the same day relating to TV ads …
Telemedicine platforms provide consumers and patients with convenient access to healthcare services. For this reason, the interest in and use of telemedicine services has increased significantly in recent years. While many discussions of the risks related to telemedicine focus on state laws and fraud and abuse concerns, …
Today’s blog post illustrates how a company’s problems can escalate rapidly from an administrative warning letter to the full weight of the criminal system. The unfortunate subject is ACell, a manufacturer of medical devices derived from porcine urinary bladder material. ACell received a Warning Letter …
The government lost a significant battle in its aggressive prosecutions of individuals involved in the New England Compounding Center (NECC) disaster, in which the vilified, and now-defunct, NECC “compounded” contaminated batches of drugs that led to a multitude of deaths and injuries. Gregory Conigliaro, a …
A recent decision out of Pennsylvania caught our eye, not because it applied a new enforcement strategy by FDA, but to the contrary, because it relied on FDA’s “oldie but goodie” Inspection Warrant authority. Not a search warrant, which is subject to the same “probable …
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has been touting for years the common interest that government and industry share in promoting an ethical corporate culture. This week, DOJ reinforced the importance of a robust, well-designed, and effective corporate compliance program in DOJ’s determination of whether to …
