Life Sciences Small and Large Molecule Litigation

Integrated and Innovative Counsel

With patient lives at stake, global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies face complex battles at the intersection of intellectual property and antitrust law. Leaders of the global life sciences industry rely on Dechert’s trial lawyers, appellate lawyers, patent office specialists and Ph.D.-level counsel to represent them. Disputes come in the form of innovator v. innovator matters as well as patent disputes against generic or biosimilar drug makers under the Hatch-Waxman Act or the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA). We partner with our clients on global task forces for multifaceted and multi-jurisdictional disputes including our patent-adjacent colleagues in commercial litigation and our antitrust group.

Our legal services are distinguished by interdisciplinary expertise along with a high degree of technical and scientific sophistication across the board. Many members of our intellectual property group are licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Patent Trial and Appeals Board and hold Ph.D.’s or other advanced degrees in a life sciences discipline, such as organic and medicinal chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, immunology, and neuroscience.

Our strategies are designed to protect and maximize the value of our clients’ pharmaceutical and biotech patents. We regularly take patent and patent-adjacent disputes to trial and have won cases acting as both plaintiff and defendant in large disputes against other innovators and generics/biosimilar manufacturers alike. Our longtime clients include Eli Lilly & Co., Endo Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck Sharp & Dohme, and Sanofi SA.

Key Contacts

Martin J. Black

Partner Philadelphia
+1 215 994 2664 martin.black@dechert.com
Katherine A. Helm, Ph.D.

Partner New York
+1 212 698 3559 khelm@dechert.com
George G. Gordon

Partner Philadelphia
+1 215 994 2382 george.gordon@dechert.com

Our Capabilities

We have a dedicated life sciences patent litigation team with extensive experience representing innovators in disputes against generics, biosimilars, as well as other innovators as competitors. Our team focuses on our clients’ business needs at the outset and we pride ourselves on devising outside the box, bespoke strategies and first impression issues that engraft experience alongside creative advocacy. We are adept at handling all aspects of a dispute, from licensing or partnerships gone awry to patent office challenges, to discovery under 28 USC 1782 to assist with foreign proceedings to follow-on antitrust litigation.

Dechert’s frequent, high-profile success on behalf of life sciences companies means that our team handles highly sensitive matters, including pre-litigation Orange Book and Purple Book reviews, product launch strategic assessments, and disputes that arise in the course of clinical development. We are present when our clients need us — in colloquial terms, we do windows.

We represent global pharmaceutical companies in non-public “stealth”-stage pre-BPCIA, pre-Hatch Waxman, and pre- “follow-on” brand-on-brand litigation matters of the largest companies’ multi-billion dollar assets. When appropriate from a conflicts perspective, we have successfully represented the generic arms or affiliates of branded giants in litigation concerning 505(b)(2) New Drug Applications and select biosimilar applicants in burgeoning disputes against other companies as well as regulators.

Dechert's antitrust/competition practice has deep experience alongside our patent team in Hatch-Waxman cases involving antitrust attacks on several fronts, including cases filed by classes of direct and indirect purchasers, opt-out third-party payors, potential generic entrants and state attorneys general. For example, we successfully defended Endo Pharmaceuticals in the first-ever FTC "reverse payment" litigation challenge to a patent settlement with a "no authorized generic" provision. Our novel strategy led to a settlement with no admissions of wrongdoing, no monetary payments, and a consent decree aligning with Endo's existing patent settlement approach.

Our lawyers’ invitations from the FTC and the Department of Justice to shape public policy has established our credibility with policy makers and kept us at the forefront of legal developments. We leverage this experience to offer definitive advice and practical guidance to our clients.