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Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology

William Fry acts for many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, giving us cutting-edge knowledge of the global and national challenges facing companies operating in this highly innovative sector.

We are recognised as Ireland’s leading practice in large scale, multi-jurisdictional litigation in the Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology sectors. Our team’s success lies in its drive to achieve the right commercial outcome for our clients, its strategic expertise and exceptional industry and legal knowledge gained from acting in the majority of patent and SPC cases that have come before the Irish Courts over many years.

We advise on a broad spectrum of pharmaceutical and biotech products including antibodies, proteins, blood/plasma derived products and recombinant DNA products. Our range of services span the entire development cycle of both companies and their products. We advise on mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions (including licensing and collaborations), IP (contentious and non-contentious), capital markets and finance, taxation and dispute resolution and every phase of a product’s life cycle from product development, clinical trials, and regulatory approval to commercialisation, infringement disputes and product safety/recall/liability.

Experience

Recent work includes advising:

Amgen on its proposed acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc for an enterprise value of $28.3 billion.
Eli Lilly in proceedings seeking revocation of a Novartis patent and in the defence of infringement proceedings (including a competition law counterclaim against Novartis) with respect to Lilly’s product, Taltz®/ixekizumab for the treatment of psoriasis.
ViiV Healthcare in patent infringement proceedings against Gilead Sciences in respect of an anti-retroviral HIV treatment (Biktarvy^®/Bictegravir) and in the defence of Gilead’s counterclaim for invalidity.
AstraZeneca in its appeal of the Controller of Intellectual Property’s decision not to grant an application for a SPC.
Genentech in its Commercial Court SPC patent infringement proceedings against Amgen in respect of an anti-VEGF antibody used in the treatment of cancer.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Commercial Court patent infringement proceedings against Pfizer and in defence of Pfizer’s counterclaim for invalidity. This case related to GSK’s MenB vaccine, BEXERO.
Boehringer Ingelheim in its defence of two sets of Commercial Court proceedings brought by Teva Pharmaceuticals seeking the revocation of a Boehringer Ingelheim patent and an SPC relating to Boehringer Ingelheim’s bestselling respiratory pharmaceutical product, SPIRIVA.
MSD Corp in the defence of Irish Commercial Court patent infringement proceedings brought by Bristol-Myers Squibb/Ono Pharmaceuticals / Tasuko Honjo relating to anti-PD-1 antibodies in the treatment of cancer and MSD’s product, KEYTRUDA.
GSK in its trade mark and passing off action against Rowex Limited and related companies involving the Seretide Inhaler, one of the all-time best-selling prescription drugs.
AbbVie / Allergan Acquisition on applicable provisions of the Irish Takeover Rules, and other relevant corporate and takeover law, to a significant shareholder of Allergan plc, in the context of AbbVie’s c.$60bn takeover of Allergan by scheme of arrangement under Ireland’s Companies Act 2014.