Life Sciences and Biotechnology
The Life Sciences and Biotechnology team includes well-respected professionals with a range of legal, political, governmental, scientific and business planning experience. Our Life Sciences and Biotechnology Professionals include Attorneys, Patent Agents and Technical Specialists, many with PhD degrees. The Life Sciences and Biotechnology practice is a multi-faceted resource for the biotechnology sector, offering services in patent prosecution and strategic counseling, trademark, licensing, government affairs, legislative action, business counseling, venture capital and private equity, government contracting, health care and compliance. The team has expertise in all aspects of pharmaceutical, biotechnical and chemical areas, including therapeutic proteins, small molecules, antibodies, detection and diagnostic technologies, emerging infectious diseases, biodefense, pandemic influenza preparedness, decision support systems for public health response, industrial biotechnology, and the burgeoning clean-tech sector.
Intellectual Property
MLA’s Life Sciences and Biotechnology Patent practice
counsels and supports bio-pharma clients in intellectual property
commercialization and development of technologies that are at the forefront of
drug discovery and medical treatment.
The team provides services in the areas of patent drafting, patent
portfolio strategy and development, patent prosecution, patentability
analyses, freedom-to-operate analyses,
due diligence reviews, post-grant review proceedings and litigation. We also offer services in securing and
registering client trademarks. MLA
provides services to a wide range of clients, including small and developing
companies, private and public biotechnology companies, research institutes and universities. MLA provides services to secure patent rights
in the United States and throughout the world in numerous international
jurisdictions.
Attorneys and patent technical specialists at MLA have advanced scientific degrees and industry training to support clients in a range of technology areas, and in particular have broad expertise and understanding of complex technologies in the biological, pharmaceutical and chemical fields. Team members have experience in cellular and molecular biology, immunology, plant physiology, biochemistry and chemistry, and have drafted and prosecuted applications in the areas including therapeutic proteins and other biologics, pharmaceuticals, antibodies, proteases and other enzymes, viruses, viral vectors, vaccines, small molecules, nutraceuticals, biomarkers, and diagnostic methods.
Government Contracts
MLA’s Life Sciences and Biotechnology Government Contracts practices
secures government contracts, grants, and collaborations for technology
offerings across the public health and life science sector as a result of
access to political leaders, federal agency managers, scientific entrepreneurs,
and company leaders who are spearheading life sciences advancements. Members of
our team work to provide strategic government affairs and business counseling,
as well as due diligence reviews for investors and other entities considering
joining this quickly expanding sector. MLA provides substantive value for
clients regarding all public policy issues and impending legislation in the
fields of biotechnology and life sciences.
MLA helps clients exceed their business objectives by developing and executing agreements for funding for technological advancements in the life sciences that allow companies to create profitable partnerships across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, defense technology, and clean-tech industries. Equally as important, we help the financial community understand the opportunities and challenges of working with the federal government, and how to leverage government funding or government policy to maximize an investment decision.
The Life Sciences and Biotechnology team is ready with authoritative advice on creating new markets for biotechnology companies interested in government funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and others. In addition, our international team is skilled at dealing with various defense and health ministries throughout Europe, and non-government purchasers around the globe. Political intelligence, research and access to important decision makers is key to understanding how biotech companies can thrive.
MLA provides advisory services in the following arenas:
- Public Health Preparedness
- Biodefense
- Pandemic Influenza Preparedness
- Detection and Diagnostics
- Emerging Infectious Disease
- Industrial Biotechnology
- Biofuels
- Environmental Biotechnology
- Government Affairs
- Legislative Action
- Science
- Venture Capital and Private Equity
- Government Contracts
- Health Care
- Compliance
Technology areas including therapeutic proteins and biologics, detection and diagnostics, biodefense, pandemic influenza preparedness, emerging infectious disease, industrial biotechnology, biofuels, environmental biotechnology
Advisories
- March 30, 2012Following its decision in Bilski, on March 20, 2012, a unanimous (9-0) Supreme Court handed down its decision in Mayo v. Prometheus-the Court’s second opinion on patentable subject matter in less than two years. Prometheus is the sole and exclusive licensee of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,355,623 and 6,680,302, which claim methods for determining the optimal dosage of thiopurine drugs used to treat immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorders, and marketed a PROMETHEUS Thiopurine Metabolites test that used the technology covered by the patents-in-suit.
- October 11, 2011
- May 6, 2011
Publications
- Chasing Carbon, the Younger and Other Stories of Patenting Green Polymers
- Health Insurance Exchanges:Opportunities, Pitfalls and a Fork in the Road
- Pesticide Regulation Handbook