Dec. 16, 2024

Professor Lietzan participates in Biopharma Roundtable

On Nov. 22, Professor Erika Lietzan traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in a “Biopharma Roundtable” hosted by the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (C-IP2) at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.  This small invitation-only roundtable brought together a group of experts in economics and business, health policy and management, and intellectual property, as well as representatives of industry, and others, to discuss biopharmaceutical intellectual property policy issues, recent scholarship on those issues, and gaps in the scholarship.  Professor Lietzan is a senior scholar with C-IP2 and currently also serves as a distinguished commentator…

Oct. 14, 2024

Professor Lietzan presents in health policy webinar

On Oct. 8, Professor Erika Lietzan participated in a Hudson Institute webinar entitled, “Do Drug Patents Cause High Prices?” with Professor Adam Mossoff from the Antonin Scalia Law School and Corey Salsberg, vice president and global head of intellectual property affairs for Novartis. They discussed the importance of evidence-based policy making, and the work that has been done to explore the connection between drug patents and drug prices.  In this webinar, Professor Lietzan discussed several important empirical studies that she has published on this issue.  She focused on a paper she published in 2023, Solutions Still Searching for…

Oct. 1, 2024

Professor Lietzan Presents at NYU symposium

On Sept. 26-27, Professor Erika Lietzan participated in a symposium at New York University Law School Engelberg Center entitled “Health Care at Reasonable Cost: The Hatch-Waxman Act at 40 and Beyond.”  Sept. 24 marked the 40th anniversary of this statute, which established the modern generic drug approval framework and also amended the Patent Act to give brand drug companies back a portion of the patent term that is lost while they conduct premarket testing.   This symposium convened academic and industry experts to consider whether this transformational statute  has achieved its twin goals of facilitating drug competition and encouraging…

Aug. 15, 2024

Professor Lietzan Named to “Best Lawyers in America”

For the 11th straight year, Erika Lietzan, William H. Pittman Professor of Law & Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, was named a Best Lawyer in FDA Law and for the 17th straight year as a Best Lawyer in Biotechnology & Life Sciences Law for 2025.

Aug. 13, 2024

Professor Erika Lietzan Reappointed to ACUS

Erika Lietzan, the WIlliam H. Pittman and Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law, has been reappointed to a third term as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). ACUS is a federal agency charged by Congress with studying the efficiency, adequacy, and fairness of the procedures used by administrative agencies and with developing recommendations for improvement.  These recommendations are issued to administrative agencies, the President, Congress, and the Judicial Conference of the United States, and often result in important procedural reforms. Members of ACUS develop these recommendations in committee, and the agency then meets in plenary session…

May 29, 2024

Professors Mitchell, Freyermuth and Lietzan win 2024 Mizzou Law Faculty Awards

Each year, three faculty members receive Mizzou Law awards for their outstanding work: one for a scholarly work, one for teaching, and one for the administration of justice. The Husch Blackwell Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award is awarded for teaching excellence, and the recipient is chosen by the Missouri Law Review’s editorial board. This years’ awardee is Professor S. David Mitchell. In a nomination letter, the Missouri Law Review’s editor-in-chief wrote that Professor Mitchell “consistently show[s] acceptance for diverse viewpoints, and . . . encourage[s] his students to step outside of their comfort zones to expand their perspectives.” The Shook, Hardy…

May 22, 2024

Professor Lietzan Speaks at Food & Drug Law Institute Annual Meeting

Last week, Professor Erika Lietzan spoke at the Food & Drug Law Institute’s annual meeting. Her talk discussed the Fifth Circuit’s Apter v. HHS decision (which relates to FDA’s famous “you’re not a horse” tweet.) The FDLI is a nonprofit membership organization for specialists in food and drug law, whether they are in private practice, industry, government, or academia. Professor Lietzan has held multiple leadership positions at the FDLI since the early 2000s, most recently serving on the committee organizing programs and publications to celebrate its 75th anniversary.  Her talk on Apter focused mainly on sovereign immunity and…

Jan. 16, 2024

Professor Lietzen Fall 2023 Scholarship Recap

In September, Professor Erika Lietzen presented a work in progress at BYU’s law school.  The presentation was called “Accountability By Petition.” She will be submitting the paper – now called “The Power of Petitions” – in the February cycle. The paper explores the role that petitions to federal agencies can play in helping us hold agencies accountable, and it is based in part on a review of several thousand petitions that FDA has received since the mid 1970s. On Nov. 3, Prof. Lietzen moderated a panel on the Food & Drug Law Journal‘s symposium (agenda is here). The…

Aug. 30, 2023

Prof. Lietzan named to Best Lawyers List

For the 10th straight year, Erika Lietzan, William H. Pittman Professor of Law & Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, was named a Best Lawyer in FDA Law and for the 16th straight year as a Best Lawyer in Biotechnology & Life Sciences Law for 2024.

Nov. 2, 2022

Are Drug Companies the Villain?

For years, brand drug companies have been villainized for “evergreening” or manipulating the law to extend the period of exclusivity for drugs beyond their 20-year patent — a practice critics say unfairly prevents competition from generic drug companies and that has prompted legislators to consider significant reform to policies that govern the pharmaceutical industry. But an audit of more than 200 drugs by a University of Missouri researcher found generic versions of all the drugs were available before their patents expired, raising questions about data being used by policymakers to prove evergreening exists. According to the new study, a comprehensive…