Life Sciences - Antitrust
Acquiring and exploiting biotech "assets" presents new and challenging antitrust issues for our clients. In particular, the federal antitrust authorities only recently have begun to grapple with the difficult issues associated with analyzing what constitutes a "market" for particular biotech innovations.
This is critical to the efforts by the antitrust authorities to evaluate (and potentially challenge) mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and licensing arrangements among competing pharmaceutical and biotech firms. On behalf of our clients, we also have worked closely with the antitrust authorities in educating them on how to think about biotech "markets," the ease or difficulty of entry into those markets by new innovators, and the kind of barriers to such entry associated with biotech patents and other intellectual property.
From a litigation standpoint, because of our expertise in helping companies navigate the intersection (and often collision) between intellectual property law and the antitrust laws, we have assisted our clients in litigating biotech-related disputes in this area.
Representative Antitrust matters
- Counseled a Fortune 100 life sciences company in the formation of a joint venture to use genomics to enhance the output traits of agricultural products, and in the acquisition of the world's largest seed supplier. In connection with the acquisition, we worked directly with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in evaluating acquisitions of seed germplasm assets, and in securing approval for our client's acquisition of valuable biotech assets for use in food and pharmaceutical product development.
- Provided antitrust advice to a major pharmaceuticals producer on research and development, patent licensing, marketing alliance and other transactions.
- Represented major producer in the acquisition of PDO technology, an important ingredient in the biological production of fibers similar to nylon and polyester.
Visit our Antitrust practice for more information.