Biotech Insights
A Haynes Boone Newsletter
The Biotech Insights newsletter is your go-to resource for staying informed on the latest legal developments in biotechnology. Our October newsletter is featured below, as well as links to previous newsletters and information.
October 2025 Biotech Insights
Welcome to Haynes Boone’s Biotech Insights! This newsletter is your go-to resource for staying informed on the latest legal developments in biotechnology. Each edition will feature expert analysis of key topics impacting the biotechnology industry, a spotlight on one of our talented team members and details about where to connect with our team at upcoming industry events. We are committed to keeping you informed in this important and rapidly evolving field.
Read the October 2025 Biotech Insights here.
The Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) § 1202 provides for an exclusion from gain on the sale of qualified small business stock (“QSBS”), up to $15 million (or 10 times the stock’s adjusted basis), if certain conditions are met. As a practical matter, the benefits of QSBS are significant and are generally available to many taxpayers owning C-corporation stock. QSBS can be issued, for example, to a limited liability company or an S-corporation. Business owners, including those in the life sciences industry, commonly overlook many issues and considerations when dealing with the qualifications for QSBS treatment. The following are a few key issues and considerations that life science business owners should consider when dealing with QSBS.
Decades of stifled research into the therapeutic effects of psychedelics followed the “War on Drugs” that was codified in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. However, over the past two decades, there has been renewed interest in the use of psychedelics for otherwise intractable syndromes such as depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As a result, hundreds of psychedelic-related patent applications covering psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; also known as ecstasy), dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ketamine analogs and various formulations and methods have been filed in the U.S.
Most life sciences transactions result in intellectual property (IP) due diligence being carried out on underlying IP assets that are often central to the transaction. Typically, this includes a focus on patent due diligence to determine whether key patent assets are valid and enforceable. For many life sciences companies, and particularly for early-stage companies, patent prosecution is proceeding at the same time as active due diligence. Accordingly, effective due diligence is often characterized by taking “snapshots” of a moving target, the moving target being the ongoing patent prosecution.