Preview: Practical Law’s Life Sciences Forum

On Thursday, June 25, 400 private lawyers and in-house counsels from the life sciences industry will gather at the third annual Life Sciences Forum hosted by Thomson Reuters’s Practical Law. This year, the forum takes place in in the shadow of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral.

As PwC reports that the first quarter of 2015 saw the greatest ever value of mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry, and the forthcoming EU Data Protection Regulation demands a delicate balancing act between data protection and data transparency, lawyers practicing in the life sciences industry are dealing with an evolving set of challenges.

This year’s forum aims to provide guidance on how to cope with these new challenges, from maximising the value of industry partnerships, to providing tips on how to operate in a range of jurisdictions, to informing on useful strategies to deploy throughout the lifecycle of a pharma product or medical device.

Already confirmed to speak at this year’s forum are in-house counsels from Merck Sharp & Dohme, AstraZeneca, GSK, Actavis and Abbvie, among others.

The day

Kicking off the day’s events will be a talk on the evolving role of general counsel, followed by a look at the checkpoints to consider before launching a drug.

A series of breakout sessions will deal with how to avoid the pitfalls when developing pharma products or medical devices, how to maintain data privacy while honouring obligations to transparency in light of the new EU Data Protection Regulation, and managing PR for companies subect to an investigation.

Before the lunch break, a session will look at the differences between the generic and brand name product lifecycles as well as their companies’ business models and needs, while identifying the key areas of legal support.

An in-house counsel from a to-be-confirmed pharma company will then be invited to talk about their day-to-day experience on the job, and the biggest challenges they are facing.

From 2pm there will be a pair of sessions focused on how to effectively manage mergers, acquisitions and collaborations, as well as dealing with disputes, co-marketing and co-promotion agreements.

Finally, after its success in last year’s forum, there will be another international country roundtable, which will allow attendees the opportunity to arm themselves with facts about the best strategies for entering different jurisdictions, while avoiding the pitfalls.

This year’s table discussions will focus on Ireland, South East Asia (with a focus on Thailand); and the world’s third-largest pharma market, China.

The third annual Practical Law Life Sciences Forum takes place at the St Paul’s etc.venues in London on June 25.