Pharmaceuticals and life sciences
We provide leading corporate and M&A, commercial, regulatory, litigation and intellectual property support specific to the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector.
Our comprehensive pharmaceuticals and life sciences practice assists clients with all aspects of their business, including:
- Intellectual property: patent strategies, mapping, prosecution and maintenance, prosecution of trade-marks, copyrights and industrial decisions, ownership and transfer of intellectual property, patent enforcement and litigation;
- Corporate finance and M&A: financing of biotechs, developing and executing exit strategies and M&A involving public securities, private M&A, commercialised or pre-commercialisation assets and pharmaceutical plants;
- Commercial: contracts relating to R&D, pre-commercialisation and commercialisation, including market access and exploitation and licensing;
- Regulatory: regulatory guidance and advice in connection with pre-clinical and clinical development, market access and exploitation, logistics and transfers;
- Competition/anti-trust: merger control clearance, preparation of compliance programmes, negotiation of patent infringement and settlement agreements, advice relating to cartel investigations, abuse of market power, marketing practices, pricing practices, distribution issues and refusals to deal;
- Disputes: all areas of litigation support, including product liability claims, competition-related litigation, including class actions and patent settlement agreements.
Our clients include many major global pharmaceutical companies as well as many emerging bioscience and technology companies. We also represent venture capitalists, angel investors, financial institutions (including investment banks), universities, research centres and hospitals.
We deliver
- over 100 lawyers and agents, many of whom possess advanced scientific degrees, focused in the sector and comprising the most comprehensive all-around life sciences and pharmaceuticals practice;
- leading expertise in IP litigation as we have received recognition in the pharmaceutical industry for having prevailed in a number of the largest and most complex pharmaceutical patent lawsuits in Canada;
- capability to advise clients on regulatory, competition and privacy issues around the globe;
- experience with significant worldwide corporate and commercial transactions acting for pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and VCs, including capital markets, M&A and licensing transactions;
- extensive coverage in emerging markets including over 800 lawyers in Asia Pacific;
- a truly global resource across 39 offices in Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada, Africa, and the Middle East.
Recognition
PLC Life Sciences Handbook 2011 – leading in Life Sciences-Regulatory, Patent Litigation and Product Liability and highly recommended for Patent Counselling and Corporate & Commercial with more lawyers ranked than any other Canadian law firm
“Winning praise for its strong team of lawyers, high profile clients and high-quality service.” – Chambers Global, Intellectual Property.
The International Who’s Who of Life Sciences Lawyers 2011 – with the most Canadian lawyers ranked of any other firm
Chambers Europe 2011 - “At Norton Rose LLP, celebrated competition partner Mélanie Thill-Tayara continues to be both highly respected and active in the life sciences field. Clients report that “she is an extremely practical competition lawyer, who manages to distil her advice into straightforward nuggets that business people can understand.” They elaborate that “her advice is concise, succinct and to the point, her knowledge of French and European competition law is incredible, and her risk assessments are spot-on.” ”
Legal 500 EMEA 2011 - “Norton Rose LLP’s Mélanie Thill-Tayara advises leading laboratories on strategic antitrust matters”.
Paris Antitrust, competition and regulatory practice ranked as “a must” in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals sectors in France by Décideurs Stratégie Finance Droit annual ranking 2010