Pharmaceuticals and healthcare

News

biotechnology

Latham and Skadden lead on £4.6bn Abcam acquisition

Advisers from Latham & Watkins and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have led on US conglomerate Danaher Corporation’s recent acquisition of Cambridge-based life science innovator Abcam in a $5.7bn transaction. Since Abcam’s AIM delisting in December 2022, Latham is understood to have been working closely with the company’s executive board as it faced calls […]

Corporate partner rejoins Stephenson Harwood after two years

A corporate partner who left Stephenson Harwood as part of a three-partner team in 2021 is moving back to her former firm. Karima Hudson, a corporate specialist, is leaving Taylor Wessing to rejoin Stephenson Harwood. She made the move alongside Andrew Edge and Andrew McClean in March 2021. All three partners have broad corporate practices, with […]

NHS

NHS cuts five firms from commercial panel

NHS Commercial Solutions is continuing to streamline its legal services framework, appointing 18 firms to its latest roster. Bevan Brittan, Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft, Hill Dickinson and Trowers & Hamlins have all been reappointed to the procurement organisation’s panel, while Ashfords, TLT, Weightmans and Womble Bond Dickinson have been newly appointed. Elsewhere, Addleshaw Goddard, […]

Netherlands

Arnold & Porter launches Amsterdam office with two-strong hire

US firm Arnold & Porter has launched an office in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam as it bids to take advantage of the city’s life sciences market. The firm has hired Hoyng Rokh Monegier (HRM) partner Carla Schoonderbeek to lead the office, with HRM counsel Bart Jong also joining as a partner. It is understood […]

NHS health

Places up for grabs on new £200m NHS panel

The panel spots of 28 firms are up for review as the NHS commences a tender valued at £200m. NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) is putting together a national framework agreement for the provision of legal services. NHS SBS is a joint venture between the Department of Health and French IT services company Sopra Steria […]

Analysis

Pinsent Masons logo

Pinsents tasks 11 teams with genAI testing

Pinsent Masons is appointing AI champions within every office, creating 11 different “communities” of employees participating in data product testing.  The firm wants to make support around AI-related initiatives locally accessible by establishing advanced delivery teams for each practice group, as well as function-focused communities to test the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot. The 11 […]

Heathrow Airport

Clifford Chance and Latham score roles on £3bn Heathrow buyout

Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins have scored mandates on the acquisition of a stake in Heathrow Airport by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF and Ardian. The Lawyer has learnt that Latham advised its long-standing client, the PIF. The Lawyer understands the relationship manager for the PIF is UAE-based finance partner Harj Rai, who […]

chatbot genAI

“Prepare for the new world:” Simmons debuts genAI tool

Simmons & Simmons has developed its own generative AI (genAI) tool, with its workforce encouraged to train up and think about how new technologies can help in their daily life. The firm has called its genAI tool “Percy” – named after one of the twin brothers who co-founded Simmons in 1896. While Percy is powered […]

Victory for Hogan Lovells in LME nickel trades dispute

Hogan Lovells has secured a victory for the London Metal Exchange (LME) after US-based hedge fund Elliott Associates and energy trading company Jane Street Management brought a novel judicial review that sought damages for cancelled nickel trades. On 8 March, an unprecedented spike in the price of nickel during the early hours of trading drove […]

Axiom Ince fallout: Compensation claims hit £33m

Solicitors are not yet being asked to contribute more to the legal regulator’s compensation fund, despite it already receiving claims worth £33m following the collapse of Axiom Ince. There had been speculation that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) might need to impose a one-off levy on members to deal with the influx of claims. However, […]

Addleshaws crowns first non-UK managing partner

Addleshaw Goddard partners have voted for the firm’s Middle East head to take over from managing partner John Joyce next year.  MENA region head Andrew Johnson will step up to the role on 1 May 2024. Based in the UAE, Johnston has spent 10 years at the firm after two years as a partner at […]

Dollars money cash

US firms move fast to match Cravath salaries

US giants are considering whether to match a compensation scale set by Cravath Swaine & Moore last night. McDermott Will & Emery and Paul Hastings have both said they will offer its associates the same salaries as Cravath. This means that the firms’ most junior lawyers in the US will pick up $225,000, while those […]

Featured Briefings

Registration of medicines in the Eurasian Economic Union

At the Pharmaceutical Forum of the EAEU and CIS countries held in Moscow in late February 2018, the Director of the Department of Technical Regulation and Accreditation of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEС) said that the full-scale work on registration of medicines using the unified information system of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will start […]

Revolutionising Africa’s healthcare system

By Robert Breedon, Tom Gray, Elwin Morgan Africa’s healthcare is in the midst of an innovation revolution that, as PwC say, “…is transforming Africa’s economic potential, creating new target markets and unprecedented consumer choice”. This innovation revolution is powered in part by traditional methods of funding human capital development in areas such as development and […]