Optimising IP strategies: Life Sciences Law Forum preview

The fourth annual Life Sciences Law Forum, hosted by Thomson Reuters, aims to focus on equipping lawyers with practical solutions and strategies for addressing the challenges their organisation may face throughout a product’s lifecycle.

Designed for general counsel, legal counsel, legal directors and private practitioners, the conference will enable in-house counsel and practitioners to advise attendees on the technical elements of law, as well as provide their experience in overcoming those challenges.

The forum includes two ‘breakout’ sessions which take place in the morning and afternoon.

The meeting kicks off with a focus on the themes of European transparency, and regulatory and market access.

The first panel session of the morning, from 9:10am, focuses on the ‘Transparency of clinical trial data’ and is moderated by Helen Roberts, of counsel at Italian law firm BonelliErede.

She is joined by James Ryan, head of legal affairs at GW Pharmaceuticals, and Gautier Pereira, senior legal manager at GSK.

They will discuss the European Medicines Agency’s position on clinical trial and regulatory data. The session will also focus on the importance of integrity as well as transparency, and the challenges faced from an in-house perspective.

The next session, at 10:10am, again moderated by Roberts, focuses on a ‘pricing reimbursement update’. This session promises to discuss the encouraging growth in the pharmaceutical industry and assesses EU single market strategy.

From 11:30am (after a short coffee break), delegates will have a choice of two ‘breakout’ sessions, which are ‘Biosimilars: regulatory developments’ and ‘Product liability claims: lessons learned from cases’.

After lunch, which is at 12:20pm, delegates return to the second half of the day, which concerns important topics that lawyers are handling at the moment.

The first breakout session features Paul England, senior associate, and Simon Cohen, partner, from Taylor Wessing, and Sergio Napolitano, director legal affairs and trade policy at Medicines for Europe, who represent generic and biosimilar companies.

Discussions will focus on the patent challenges faced by lawyers, regulatory approvals, future strategies and an update on litigation.

The second breakout session will discuss, among other things, class action developments and lessons learned from cases and future strategies.

Tom Spencer, senior legal counsel at GSK and Matthew Felwick and Cécile Derycke from Hogan Lovells, discuss these points.

The afternoon sessions’ themes include data privacy, IP, competition law and digital life sciences.

“Discussions will focus on the patent challenges faced by lawyers, regulatory approvals, future strategies and an update on litigation.”

At 13:20pm, Funke Abimbola, general counsel at Roche in the UK, and Maria Chiara Atzori, head of data privacy at Novartis International, will discuss, among other things, personal data in life sciences and the impact of technology convergence.

This is a topic which will likely resonate with delegates after President Barack Obama spoke at an honorary ceremony for scientists at the White House on May 19.

LSIPR reported that Obama praised scientists and the technology industry.

He highlighted the work of Shirley Ann Jackson, Mark Humayan and Mary-Claire King.

“They illustrate why this is such an extraordinary moment to be a scientist in this country. America’s progress in science and technology has countless revolutionary discoveries within our reach,” Obama said.

As the afternoon continues, the forum draws its discussion towards attendees. At 14:20pm in the third ‘breakout’ session of the day, Suzanne Smith, chief legal officer and company secretary at Abcam, and Sally Shorthouse, partner at Bird & Bird, will talk about ‘Collaboration agreements—what are the best jurisdictions to resolve disputes?’.

Cameron Firth, partner and joint head of life sciences and healthcare at King & Wood Mallesons, will talk about recent, pending and possible future referrals to the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association.

Changes related to supplementary protection certificates and patents, reverse patent settlements, second medical use patents and avoiding the pitfalls of antitrust law violation will be discussed by Firth.

Technology is a theme which continues during the afternoon and at 15:10pm delegates will further delve into how technology is assisting in legal challenges.

In the final session of the day, at 15:40pm, which is called ‘Panel session: M-health, use of apps, security’, lawyers from Hogan Lovells and a visiting professor from Imperial College, London will talk about how to communicate with patients and discuss past experiments of using patient focus groups.

The Life Sciences Law Forum promises to be informative for guests and has gained positive responses from delegates who attended the 2015 conference.

Karla Burke, from Thomson Reuters, IP and science, said: “Great calibre of speakers, diverse programme, good venue.”

LSIPR is a media partner of this event. Further information can be viewed  here.