Challenges and Opportunities in Life Sciences Today

Sarah Columbia and Dr. RĂ¼diger Herrmann

This lecture will cover many of the topics most pressing in the world of Life Sciences transactions and disputes today, drawing on experience with German, European, Chinese as well as US legal developments.  The intent of the lecture is to provide a practical look at the issues practitioners need to understand to provide advice in transactions, disputes and other decision-making for Life Sciences companies.  The presenters will address, in particular: (1) current trends in co-development, co-promotion, regional and joint venture deals; (2) Intellectual Property developments, including second medical use issues and new developments in antibody patent protection in Europe and the US; (3) biosimilar trends and developments.  The presenters will discuss general issues which interface with data privacy and GDPR, but will not separately focus on data privacy or data breach issues in this lecture.

Sarah Columbia (Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, Boston) is a US lawyer who focuses her practice on intellectual property disputes, including some of the most significant Life Sciences cases of the past 5 years.  She has extensive experience representing clients in the courts in the US and coordinating disputes that reach into Europe and Asia.  Her full bio can be found at https://www.mwe.com/people/columbia-sarah-chapin/        

Dr. RĂ¼diger Herrmann (Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, Frankfurt) is a German qualified lawyer who focuses his practice on key transactions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. He has a wealth of experience advising national and international clients on mergers and acquisitions, licensing agreements, collaboration agreements, strategic alliances, initial public offerings, and private equity/venture capital transactions. He has a particularly strong background in dealing with life science matters in Europe, the US, China and Taiwan.  His full bio can be found at https://www.mwe.com/people/herrmann-ruediger/

The lecture will be held on Wednesday, July 15, 2019, at 6:30 pm at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (room E10), Marstallplatz 1, 80539 Munich.