Life Sciences and Biotechnology

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Healthcare · Life Sciences

Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and life sciences companies get counsel across the innovation lifecycle, from patenting breakthrough discoveries to clearing FDA approval and commercializing therapies in markets at home and abroad.

Life sciences turns scientific discovery into approved therapies, and the legal work has to span that entire distance. MC Law advises pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, and life sciences investors on intellectual property, FDA regulatory strategy, and the deals that carry a product from the lab to the market. Our attorneys have technical training, so we can engage with the science behind your patents and submissions rather than relying on someone else to translate it.

Patent Strategy and IP

In life sciences, the patent estate often is the company. We develop patent strategies for therapeutics and biologics, protect both small-molecule and biologic inventions, and advise on patent term extensions that preserve exclusivity. We conduct IP due diligence for financings and partnerships and handle patent disputes when competitors push into your space. The objective is an IP position strong enough to support the years of investment a therapy demands before it reaches patients.

FDA Regulatory Pathways

Nothing reaches the market without clearing the FDA, and the path is rarely simple. We advise on regulatory strategy, draft clinical trial agreements, and help prepare for FDA interactions and submissions across development. We work through post-approval obligations and map international regulatory pathways for companies commercializing beyond the United States. The aim is a regulatory plan that anticipates the agency's questions instead of reacting to them after a hold or a complete response letter.

Licensing and Commercialization

Few life sciences companies go it alone, and the deals can define a product's future. We negotiate licensing, collaboration, and co-development agreements, structure manufacturing and supply arrangements, and handle the commercial contracts that bring a therapy to market. We pay close attention to milestone payments, royalty terms, and rights reversions, so your agreements reward success without surrendering control of an asset you spent years building.

Frequently asked questions

Patent timing is a balancing act because the clock starts at filing but products take years to reach market. File before any public disclosure or you may lose rights, especially abroad where there is no grace period, and build a layered portfolio covering the composition, methods of use, formulations, and manufacturing so a single design-around does not sink you. Patent term extension and regulatory exclusivities can recapture some of the time lost to FDA review, so coordinate your patent and regulatory strategies rather than running them separately.

Often not in their natural form. After Myriad, isolated natural products like a gene sequence are not patent-eligible, and after Mayo, diagnostic methods that simply observe a natural correlation are vulnerable. You generally need something more, such as a synthetic or modified molecule, a novel formulation, or a specific non-routine method, to clear the eligibility bar. This shapes how you draft claims and sometimes pushes you toward protecting know-how as a trade secret instead.

Define ownership of background and jointly developed IP, the scope and exclusivity of the license, diligence obligations, milestones and royalties, and who controls prosecution and enforcement of the patents. Equally important is who owns and can use the data and regulatory filings, since the partner controlling the FDA submissions often controls the program's fate. Build in reversion rights so the asset comes back to you if the partner deprioritizes it.

FDA exclusivities operate separately from patents and can protect a product even when patent coverage is thin. New chemical entities and biologics get defined exclusivity periods, and the Hatch-Waxman and BPCIA frameworks govern how generics and biosimilars can challenge you, including the patent dance and litigation triggers. Planning for those challenges from the start, and listing the right patents, materially affects how long you keep the market to yourself.

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