Blog
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CannaLawBlog — Legalizing Cannabis Cash
On May 20, 2019 banking associations from all 50 states and 1 territory sent a letter to Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee urging them to conduct hearings on the merits of providing cannabis-related business access to banking services.CannaLawBlog highlighted the primary concerns of the letter in a recent post:
“Again, the primary concern expressed was that current law forces state-legal businesses to operate on a cash basis, which poses a safety risk, complicates enforcement efforts, and could damage local economies.”
The banking associations wanted to emphasize their neutrality on the legality of cannabis, rather they wanted to show strength as a national community and validate, support, and respect those communities that have voted for legalized recreational marijuana.
Read the complete post by
HarrisBricken attorney Jihee Ahn on The CannaLawBlog. -
CNN — Jury returns $2 billion verdict against Monsanto for couple with cancer — the biggest so far
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[/one-half-first] [one-half]A California jury returned a $2.055 billion verdict against Monsanto and their popular weed killer, Roundup. “The verdict in Oakland includes more than $55 million in compensatory damage and $2 billion in punitive damages.” The septuagenarian plaintiffs, represented by attorney Michael Miller of The Miller Firm, were a California couple that said long-term exposure to Roundup caused both of them to be diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that usually cannot be traced back to a source according to the American Cancer Society. The particular carcinogen in Roundup is glyphosate, which the EPA has stated was not a carcinogen in a 2015 assessment, which contradicts WHO’s statement that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans”. While a Monsanto spokesperson previously denied any manipulation, a jury found that a series of texts and emails between Monsanto and the EPA that proved Monsanto culpable of manipulating science.
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Read the complete post by Michael Nedelman on CNN.com here!
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Dr. Babyl: Artificial Intelligence Could Save Lives, Time and Money — TheDailyBeast.com
Itchy throat? Headache? Upset stomach? There’s an app for that. There is a new AI healthcare system called Babylon UK’s National Health Service which features an AI-driven app that is reportedly able to separate “run-of-the-mill” illnesses from more life-threatening ones, while saving time, money, and anxiety for patients and doctors alike.
Babylon offers more than diagnostic assistance; it is accessible to people in remote areas. “For example, Babyl, the Rwandan version of Babylon, offers remote appointments with clinicians, fills prescriptions, orders lab tests, and issues referrals.”
Babyl enables affordable, personalized healthcare, combined with “the brains of thousands of doctors at once” to reach patients who cannot get to a doctor’s officer.
In addition to assisting doctors with everyday check-ups and treating the common cold, the AI’s abilities extend to clinical trials. “In 2018 the Mayo Clinic partnered with IBM’s Watson to match patients with breast cancer to accessible clinical trials covered by their health plans. The matching program increased the enrollment of breast cancer sufferers in Mayo Clinic’s own clinical trials by 80%.”
Questions are being raised, however, about how to mitigate risks posed by hacking or by nefarious manipulation of the system. Read about this and more in the complete post by Joelle Renstrom on TheDailyBeast.com.
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The Wrong-Headedness of Hindsight Standards — Michelle Yeary | Drug & Device Law Blog
Dechert LLP attorney Michelle Yeary cautions against applying perfect hindsight to drug liability.
“We all know hindsight is 20/20. And, it’s easy. There are dozens of television and radio programs that thrive on Monday morning quarterbacking. There’s no risk in saying the coach should have called for a pass when you already know the run didn’t work. It’s also dangerous because it’s easy. People are often too quick to point out that you should have taken path B after everyone learns path A is full of potholes. Pointing it out is one thing, holding you liable for it is another.”
Yeary takes a look at what happened in Holley v. Gilead Science, Inc., 2019 WL 2077845 (N.D. Cal. May 10, 2019). The case involves two of the main active ingredients in AIDS drugs: TDF and TAF. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant should be responsible for allegedly knowingly using TDF over TAF (allegedly a safer alternative). TDF was FDA approved first and TAF second. Unfortunately, Yeary wrote, hindsight “can be used to demand perfection,” allowing plaintiffs to “proceed on what is essentially a stop-selling theory,” that first-generation drugs should not be submitted to the FDA because, in hindsight, “later approved treatments were safer.” That’s what happened in Holley, she said.
Read the complete post by Michelle Yeary on the Drug and Device Law Blog here.
Read the opinion here.
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J&J Hit with $120 Million Verdict at Mesh Trial
A Philadelphia jury returned a $120 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson after finding that a negligently designed pelvic mesh implant caused chronic pain and suffering, which left plaintiff Susan McFarland incontinent and unable to have sex for the last 10 years. McFarland alleged the implant she received in 2008 caused the product to saw through the soft tissue in her pelvis and become exposed in her vagina. She had to undergo a second surgery to remove a portion of the implant (Susan McFarland,et al. v. Ethicon Inc., et al., No. 130701577, Phila. Comm. Pls. Ct.).
This is the second of two trials. The jury in the first trial was deadlocked, unable to agree on the extent of negligence of the design of the Ethicon product. Tracie Palmer, McFarland’s attorney, added in the second trial that the vaginal mesh was on market prior to clinical studies determining its safety and efficacy.
Defense attorney Adam Spicer maintained that the chronic pain McFarland experienced could be due to other causes, including her age. He said the product had been used for years prior.
McFarland’s case is one of more than 100,000 cases brought together in the MDL, down from nearly 105,000 cases against seven manufacturers. The MDL will be closing and there will be two more waves of trial, with next wave comprising 150 cases. Final settlement conferences are scheduled for August 1 with trial set to begin August 14.
McFarland and her husband are represented by Tracie Palmer, Braden Lepisto, Shanin Specter and Lee Balefsky of Kline & Specter PC.
Ethicon is represented by Kate Skagerberg of Beck Redden LLP, Adam Spicer, Paul Rosenblatt and Jordan Walker of Butler Snow LLP, and D. Alicia Hickok, Kenneth Murphy and Melissa Merk of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.
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Suits Allege Apple Concealed Knowledge of iPhone 7 Defect
Apple Inc. has been sued in federal courts in Illinois and California for allegedly knowingly selling iPhone 7 and 7 plus models with an audio chip defect, called the “Audio IC Defect” or “Loop Disease” by consumers, which causes an array of operational issues.
The bug gums up handset audio functions, grays out speaker buttons during calls, and degrades microphone fidelity. And if that’s not enough it can kill Siri’s voice command capabilities.
The plaintiffs accuse Apple of actively concealing the Audio IC Defect while advertising the iPhone 7 as “the best iPhone we ever made.”
The plaintiffs claim that when they first experienced operational problems Apple didn’t offer complimentary repairs.
The suits allege breach of warranty and violation of California and Illinois consumer protection laws. Plaintiffs seek class certification, damages, attorneys’ fees, and injunctive relief. In Illinois, the plaintiffs may also try to force Apple to repair, recall, and/or replace current defective iPhone 7s in the United States and notify all purchasers of the Loop Disease.
Evidence shows “Apple’s internal acknowledgement and subsequent discontinuation of their out-of-warranty repairs without public announcement of the Audio IC Defect amounts to misrepresentation and concealment of the Audio IC Defect,” the California complaint in Casillas v. Apple reads.
Complaints available on Scribd.com.
Casillas v. Apple, N.D. Calif., No. 3:19-cv-2455
Castelli v. Apple, N.D. Ill., Eastern Div., No. ______
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Artificial Intelligence: DeepMind on Debugging Learned Predictive Models
DeepMind, an artificial intelligence research company, in a recent blog post discusses three ways to eliminate bugs in learned predictive models. The company was founded in London in 2010. Google acquired it in 2014. In addition to London they have research centers in Edmonton and Montreal, Canada, and a DeepMind Applied team in Mountain View, California.
“Bugs and software have gone hand in hand since the beginning of computer programming,” the post reads. “Over time, software developers have established a set of best practices for testing and debugging before deployment, but these practices are not suited for modern deep learning systems. Today, the prevailing practice in machine learning is to train a system on a training data set, and then test it on another set. While this reveals the average-case performance of models, it is also crucial to ensure robustness, or acceptably high performance even in the worst case. In this article, we describe three approaches for rigorously identifying and eliminating bugs in learned predictive models: adversarial testing, robust learning, and formal verification.”Read the complete post here!
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Top Five Things to Know if You’re Building Your Cannabis Empire Through M&A — CannaLawBlog
Cannabis is associated with calm. Joining the industry is anything but.
Hilary Bricken already has nearly a decade of experience in the field of cannabis law. She founded the Canna Law Blog in 2010, which now has several contributors from the Harris Bricken firm and is easily one of the best out there. Her latest post offers insights on companies who wish to build their cannabis business through mergers and acquisitions. In her May 6 post, titled “Top Five Things to Know if You’re Building Your Cannabis Empire Through M&A,” she writes:
“It’s no secret that multiple state-by-state operators are building their cannabis empires through aggressive mergers and acquisitions. Last year, our cannabis business attorneys closed more than $100 million in cannabis company acquisitions, and that shows no signs of stopping in 2019. Cannabis M&A is not your run-of-the-mill business dealing though, and working from boilerplate, rote M&A documents is hugely dangerous. In addition, diligence is oftentimes like a regulatory spiderweb laden with liabilities that other businesses do not face. In addition, the barriers to entry in the cannabis industry are increasingly high, tedious, and protectionist, which can really torture business deals.”
Bricken writes that “if you find yourself turning into a larger multi-state operator though acquiring cannabis businesses,” there are at least five things you should know. Read on for what she has to say.
Read the complete post on CannaLawBlog.com here.
Cannabis photo by Matthew Brodeur on UnSplash.com
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Moving Your Corporate Data to the Cloud: Top 13 Things to Think About as you Review Your Hosting Agreement — Judy Selby Consulting
Some data migration risks can be mitigated at the cloud contract stage, Allison Bird, Judy Selby’s partner at Clearview Privacy Consulting LLC, explains.
Regarding indemnification, Bird says, “If data is lost or exposed by the hosting company, your company as well as any affiliates who use the services will be subject to suits from clients and individuals whose data was impacted. You may also be subject to regulatory scrutiny which could result in legal costs and regulatory penalties. To the extent possible, negotiate a full indemnification of third party claims arising out of the hosting services.”She says the limitation of liability section of your hosting agreement “may be the single most important” part. “Your hosting company may make a lot of promises in the agreement. However, if their liability under the agreement is significantly capped, you won’t receive the monetary compensation necessary to make up for hosting company’s acts and omissions that damage the company. Negotiations for a higher cap will translate into real dollars in the event of a security incident.”
Of course, insurance is always a good solution if done right. “You can negotiate the perfect contract but unless your hosting company has a deep pocket, it may not have sufficient capital to make good on contractual obligations in the event of a breach or data loss situation, especially one affecting many of its customers,” Bird says. “Consider adding language into the agreement which requires your hosting company to maintain insurance (with your company as a named insured) covering data breach and inability to access data.”
Read the complete post by Allison Bird on Judy Selby Consulting’s blog.