GlaxoSmithKline has won approval for a patent for a vaccine to prevent a common respiratory virus affecting infants, beating out a challenge from a rival that has developed a competing vaccine.
A late proposal by the Australian Law Reform Commission to introduce a ‘leave to proceed’ mechanism into class actions has been blasted by a major litigation funder and a plaintiffs-side law firm as a de facto class certification procedure that would ramp up costs and add years of delay to cases.
ASIC wants provisional liquidators appointed to Chinese bottled water supplier Tianmei Beverage to determine whether the company has breached the Corporations Act and should be wound up, just two years after the company went public.
Former Aussie Home Loan boss Stephen Porges has secured a temporary stay of a ruling that found he owed Adcock Private Equity more than $1 million for duping the firm into buying his worthless shares in a digital commerce startup.
The High Court has shot down a request by the former head of food franchisor Retail Food Group that it relieve him from having to appear before a Parliamentary Committee looking into the Franchise Code of Conduct.
Engineering and infrastructure firm RCR Tomlinson has been put into administration, a few days after being hit with a shareholder class action over $57 million in write-downs on two of its North Queensland solar farms.
Maurice Blackburn and Phi Finney McDonald have sidestepped a competing class action battle in the high-stakes litigation against Commonwealth Bank of Australia over alleged breaches of money laundering laws, with the firms proposing to jointly lead a consolidated class action against the bank.
Bannister Law has stepped down from leading a shareholder class action, the second major class action the firm has recently handed over to a rival firm without explanation.
A Dick Smith shareholder has lost his bid to bring a separate proceeding against the failed home goods retailer while two class actions are afoot.
The scope of the government’s power to detain individuals is “a matter of considerable public importance”, a judge has said, shooting down the Commonwealth’s bid for costs after it won the dismissal of a class action brought on behalf of asylum seekers who allege they were unlawfully imprisoned in Australian immigration detention centres.