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Some Novo suits against compounders have fizzled

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Google keeps ex-Paul Weiss team

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Clear Channel wants fees in billboard battle

By David Thomas and Mike Scarcella

May 29 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly

report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to

[email protected])

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is facing a request

for hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees after a

judge dismissed its lawsuit against a Florida pharmacy for

selling products containing semaglutide, the active ingredient

in its blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and

Ozempic.

U.S. District Judge William Jung in Tampa, Florida,

dismissed Novo's lawsuit against Brooksville Pharmaceuticals

earlier this month, dealing the company a setback in a wave of

similar lawsuits against compounding pharmacies that sold

semaglutide-containing drugs.

Brooksville's lawyers this week asked the judge to award

them more than $439,000 in attorney and expert fees and costs

after fighting off Novo's claims that it violated a state law

barring sales of adulterated and misbranded drugs.

Compounded drugs are custom-made medicines that are based on

the same ingredients as branded drugs. Federal regulations allow

compounded versions to be sold to meet demand if a drug is in

short supply. Both Wegovy and Ozempic were on the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration's drug shortage list from March 2022 to

February 2025.

Jung ruled in part that the Danish drugmaker's claims were

rendered moot after the FDA declared that the shortages for

Ozempic and Wegovy were over.

The judge also found that Novo failed to find any patient

who was actually harmed by Brooksville's compounded drug, a

point that was emphasized by the pharmacy's lawyers at Frier

Levitt in their Tuesday fee request.

"Novo was not aware of any instances of patient harm caused

by Brooksville's semaglutide compounds. And yet, Novo continued

to pursue litigation even after it became clear that its case

was without merit," the fee motion said.

Novo said in a statement that its lawsuit against

Brooksville Pharmaceuticals was dismissed "as a legal matter,"

and asserted that U.S. law prohibits compounders from making or

selling "knockoff 'semaglutide drugs' with rare exceptions."

"Moving forward, any compounder that mass produces or sells

knockoff drugs is breaking the law and compromising patient

safety," the company said.

A spokesperson for Novo did not immediately respond to a

request for comment.

Matthew Modafferi, a lawyer for the pharmacy at Frier

Levitt, declined to comment on the fee petition.

Analysts forecast that the obesity drug market could be

worth as much as $150 billion by the early 2030s.

Both Novo and Eli Lilly ( LLY ) have waged an active

campaign to crack down on medical spas, weight-loss clinics,

compounding pharmacies and online sellers in a bid to stop them

from selling products claiming to contain the active ingredients

in their drugs. Novo said it has filed nearly 120 lawsuits

across 34 states, and obtained 28 final judgments and permanent

injunctions.

The case before Jung is at least the fourth lawsuit Novo has

filed and lost over compounded versions of its weight-loss drug

in the Middle District of Florida.

One of the defendants, Wells Pharmacy Network, sought more

than $250,000 in attorney fees and costs for winning its case in

the lower court. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Philip Lammens denied

the request, finding it was premature for Wells Pharmacy to seek

attorney fees while Novo was pursuing an appeal.

- Alphabet's Google and chipmaker Qualcomm ( QCOM )

are keeping teams of lawyers who have defected from large U.S.

law firm Paul Weiss, court records show.

Karen Dunn, Jeannie Rhee, William Isaacson and Jessica

Phillips split from Paul Weiss last week, after it struck a deal

with the Trump White House in March to lift an executive order

targeting the firm's legal business operations.

The four attorneys and their new firm Dunn Isaacson Rhee are

defending Google in the U.S. government's lawsuit accusing it of

illegally monopolizing digital advertising markets. Other Paul

Weiss attorneys are still on the matter, as are teams from law

firms Freshfields and Axinn Veltrop. Google declined to comment,

and it has denied any wrongdoing.

Dunn and Isaacson separately are continuing to represent

Qualcomm ( QCOM ) in a lawsuit in the federal court in Delaware, court

records show. A group of Paul Weiss lawyers are also on that

case. Isaacson and Phillips remain on the defense team for

Ultimate Fighting Championship in an antitrust lawsuit with

Latham & Watkins and other Paul Weiss lawyers, a filing showed

this week.

The attorneys declined to comment. Paul Weiss did not

immediately respond to a request for comment.

- Outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel has asked a

federal judge in Manhattan to award it $3.1 million in fees

following a five-year legal battle with the city of New

Rochelle, New York over the ownership of its 16 billboards

within the city limits.

Clear Channel said its lawyers from Chicago-founded Sidley

Austin spent roughly 3,800 hours litigating its 2020 lawsuit

against New Rochelle's "attempted, unconstitutional taking" of

its billboards.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged that New Rochelle sought

to remove the company's billboards without due process or

compensation and gave those licenses to one of Clear Channel's

competitors, which paid New Rochelle millions for exclusivity

rights.

Sidley said in a court filing that its requested hourly

rates of up to $1,400 for senior partners are "significantly

below" the firm's standard rates for work in the Southern

District of New York.

A Clear Channel spokesperson did not immediately respond to

a request for comment, nor did the city of New Rochelle's

lawyers at New York law firm Harris Beach Murtha.

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