LSIPR 50 2016: Mike Young
Name: Mike Young
Organisation: Roche
Position: Vice president and chief intellectual property counsel
Mike Young graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in science. Following his graduation, he worked from 1978 to 1986 as a research chemist in medical diagnostics and then in the pharmaceutical industry from 1986 to 1988.
Young’s career as a lawyer began in 1988 when he worked at Faegre Baker Daniels (formerly Baker & Daniels). While there, his practice included intellectual property law. In 1990 he joined Boehringer Mannheim as assistant patent counsel after the company was acquired by Roche. He was promoted to chief patent counsel and has worked as vice president and chief intellectual property counsel since 2006.
"Roche looks 'very carefully' at patent claims and what it needs for a freedom to operate."
In October 2015, Life Sciences IP Review attended the annual LES conference. At the meeting, head of licensing at Roche Monte Wetzel said there is “clearly a lot of unrest” in the patent law on molecular diagnostics. He argued that there are no clear guidelines on what is patent-eligible and when the law is unclear “you’re kind of stuck”.
Wetzel said that after recent cases, including Ariosa Diagnostics v Sequenom, Roche looks “very carefully” at patent claims and what it needs for a freedom to operate. “We’re an ethical company, so if we think there is a reason to take a licence to patents, we do that,” he added.
Roche has entered into a number of patent licensing deals in the past months, including in January 2015 when it signed a deal with molecular diagnostics company Qiagen. Roche provided non-exclusive licences to use technology covering the detection of mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor pathway.
The licences apply to testing products which detect mutations using molecular techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction, next generation sequencing and other applications to help identify cancer patients eligible for treatment with certain tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Paul Brown, head of Roche molecular diagnostics, said at the time: “As a leader in molecular assay development, we are pleased to provide licences to the applicable patents so that existing and new tests can support patient treatment decisions.”
