5 October 2016Americas

LSIPR 50 2016: Jürgen Dressel and Judy Jarecki-Black

Name: Jürgen Dressel

Organisation: Novartis

Position: Global head of patent litigation

Jürgen Dressel has worked in the life sciences industry since 1997, when he worked as a medicinal chemist at Bayer. He later moved to the patents department and qualified as a European patent attorney. Dressel subsequently joined the generics group in Novartis’s patent department.

In 2004 he was responsible for general medicine and focused on the areas of cardiovascular, respiratory and neuroscience diseases. In his current role, he mainly focuses on preparing for and executing litigation between originator and generic companies.

In April 2015, Life Sciences IP Review reported that Novartis had settled a patent licensing suit with Juno Therapeutics. Under the terms of the settlement, Novartis was initially due to pay Juno $12.25 million and then pay royalties on US net sales of any products related to patent claims covering an invention for creating genetically modified immune cells to target cancer.

"he mainly focuses on preparing for and executing litigation between originator and generic companies."

In one of the most closely watched patent cases in the biotechnology space, Novartis’s subsidiary Sandoz is at loggerheads with Amgen over the so-called patent dance, which allows biologic and biosimilar companies to address any patent infringement claims while an applied-for biosimilar drug is being approved.

In July last year, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that the patent dance is optional, but added that a biosimilar applicant must give 180-days’ pre-marketing notice to its rival after an application has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. In a writ of certiorari filed in February 2016, Sandoz asked the US Supreme Court to review the part of the ruling dealing with the 180 days’ notice.

Name: Judy Jarecki-Black

Organisation: Merial

Position: Global head of IP

Judy Jarecki-Black has worked at Merial since 2002 and is now global head of IP. During her career, she has also worked at law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge &
Rice as a biotechnology patent attorney. Jarecki-Black, who has experience in patents, licensing, litigation, regulatory affairs and immunology, is admitted to practise before several federal courts and the US Supreme Court.

During her 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she has worked as a researcher in developing animal and human vaccines against infectious diseases, such as developing and licensing the recombinant Lyme (OspA) vaccine.

Jarecki-Black is responsible for the enforcement of Merial’s global patent portfolio, which involves obtaining patent protection, generating freedom-to-operate opinions, and undertaking due diligence for licensing opportunities.

"Jarecki-Black is responsible for the enforcement of Merial’s global patent portfolio."

In 2011, Merial entered the veterinary pet ‘nutraceutical’ market by launching Supleneo Flex in Germany, Italy and the UK. The product complemented Merial’s existing product Previcox (firocoxib), which provides pain relief for dogs that have osteoarthritis.

Vincent Krogmann, director of pet pharmaceuticals and global strategic marketing at the company, said at the time: “Supleneo Flex was developed by Merial specifically for dogs; it is not an off-the-shelf product.”