On May 5, 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued six new examples that provide guidance to Examiners and patent applicants prosecuting claims directed to life sciences subject matter (Subject Matter Eligibility Examples: Life Sciences).  These examples analyze claims that are directed to several of the most contentious areas of patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101, including vaccines, methods for diagnosing and treating, nature-based products including mixtures, methods for genetic screening, and machines and processes that are alleged to be founded on a natural law. 

On schedule, CMS released the 2014 Sunshine Act data, which shows $6.49 billion in transfers of value by pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers to physicians and teaching hospitals.  The data covers 11.4 million financial transactions attributed to over 600,000 physicians