Intellectual Property

Biopharmaceutical Mergers and Acquisitions: Their Impact on the Services Industry

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The biopharmaceutical industry is, and always has been, rife with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, with small biotechnology companies combining technology and platforms, mid-size organizations diversifying pipelines, and larger corporations replenishing products under the weight of expiring intellectual property (IP). And then come the multibillion-dollar megamergers: Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, Pfizer and Wyeth, and Merck and Schering-Plough, for example. Few people expected 2022 to be an exception. According to a recent Ernst & Young (EY) report, the industry’s value…

August 17, 2023

Patent Before Publish: Maximizing the Benefits of Your Research

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For many life-science researchers at universities and other institutions, documenting and disseminating discoveries through publication is the natural culmination of their work. It is the process by which researchers, a group that includes principal investigators (PIs), postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students, advance their careers. It is a core piece of their continual efforts to secure funding for future work. Most researchers are rewarded for the number and quality of their publications, which are judged, in part, by their impact factor…

March 21, 2023

US Patent Law: A 20-Year Retrospective

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The past 20 years have been extraordinary for intellectual property law. Most of the transformations can be attributed to changes in the statute, US Supreme Court jurisprudence, almost complete turnover in judges in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit,” below), and advances in technology that could not have been anticipated in 2002. An understanding of those changes requires a retrospective of patent law over those 20 years. At that time, the Federal Circuit was 20 years…

October 20, 2022

The CRISPR Saga (So Far)

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Since January 2016 (with a brief interlude as described below), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has been attempting to adjudicate the proper inventorship of CRISPR technology in (to date) six separate patent-interference proceedings. (Scientific “priority has been decided, for now, by the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier in 2020; see the “Priority Claims” box). CRISPR-based gene editing was hailed as the “Breakthrough of the Year” in 2015 (1), and the scientific…

April 19, 2022

Patent Thickets Constrain US Biosimilars Market

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Biosimilars represent a significant cost-savings opportunity in the United States because they can introduce competition for some of the most expensive and widely used prescription drugs on the market: originator biologics. Several market and regulatory barriers have slowed biosimilar market entry and uptake in the United States (1). Some hurdles are unintentional or transitory; others are deliberately crafted by manufacturers of reference biologics to thwart competition. Among the most significant strategic barriers to biosimilars’ entry into the US market are…

December 8, 2021

Collaboration Agreements: Critical Issues and Common Pitfalls

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The number of collaboration arrangements for emerging technologies is increasing significantly, especially among companies developing COVID-19 diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics. Consequently, a massive amount of capital was invested in the biopharmaceutical industry in 2020. These deals range in value from the low millions to several billion dollars, representing significant risks and value for investors. Some recipients of that capital are seeking partners with whom to collaborate, sharing both the costs and risks associated with their activities and bringing innovative technologies…

October 28, 2021

Intellectual Property and COVID-19

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The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest global health threat caused by a virus since the influenza pandemic of 1918 (and, before that, innumerable smallpox outbreaks throughout history). So far, the number of infections and deaths has not reached levels seen during the “Spanish flu” pandemic. However, travel, global trade, and modern factors such as misinformation on social media have increased infection rates and risks of infection. As of 15 July 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) had reported 188,655,968 confirmed…

October 28, 2021

Trade-Secret Vulnerabilities: Recent Hacking Schemes Highlight the Need to Protect Proprietary Pharmaceutical Information

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On 21 July 2020, the US Attorney’s Office in Spokane, WA, unveiled a sweeping indictment accusing a pair of Chinese hackers of conspiring to steal trade secrets from a number of American pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, including biotechnology companies working on potential COVID-19 vaccines (1). Although the hackers apparently did not succeed in their attempt to obtain vaccine data, their years-long conspiracy involved other attacks on the pharmaceutical industry — and netted them troves of sensitive commercial information. Among…

April 16, 2021

Biosimilars Pipeline and Market Trends

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Most biopharmaceutical industry experts now consider biosimilars to be mainstream products, indicating that the field has progressed immensely over the past 10 years. Nevertheless, when comparing approvals and commercial offerings across the globe between 2013 and 2020, it becomes clear that some regions welcome these therapies more than others do. Western European biosimilars markets continue to be kind to these drugs’ production, distribution, and coverage; and companies headquartered in Asia and the Pacific Rim increasingly are getting involved in biosimilars…

June 12, 2020

Cell and Gene Therapies Get a Reality Check: A Conversation with Anthony Davies of Dark Horse Consulting Group

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As founder of cell and gene therapy (CGT) specialist firm Dark Horse Consulting Group in California, Anthony Davies speaks from a quarter century of experience including former positions at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Syrrx, ZymeQuest, Serologicals, Geron Corporation, Capricor, and 4D Molecular Therapeutics — and he currently serves on the board of directors for TrakCel and the scientific advisory boards for Akron Biotech and BioLife Solutions. In his plenary address at the Phacilitate 2020 Leaders World conference (part of Advanced Therapies Week…

May 24, 2020