+ Workshop #6 McDermott Will & Emery

What will we talk about?:

In course of pharmaceutical product development, a collaboration with a strategic partner might become necessary or desirable sooner or later. A collaboration can serve different purposes, such as the conduct of joint development activities, access to additional technologies/IP or simply leveraging the product development by partnering with a knowledgeable partner who can perform and finance clinical studies, market launch or commercialization in important markets.

Co-Development or Licensing Collaborations are complex legal animals, because they govern the parties’ relationship and contributions over a long period of time. Just as importantly, they govern how the pie is shared between the parties if the product is successful.
In each collaboration, there are certain key issues (and potential pitfalls) which need to be taken into diligent consideration and which take up a significant share of negotiation time prior to signing of the respective agreements. These key issues are:

• (a) contributions and diligence obligations;
• (b) governance (decision rights and reporting obligations);
• (c) licensed IP and scope of license rights (including alignment with head licenses);
• (d) allocation of new IP and prosecution rights;
• (e) termination rights and consequences of termination; and
• (f) financial terms (milestones, royalties and sublicense fees).

The workshop will explain the economic background for these key issues, the interests of both parties (presented from each angle) and how these issues can (and should) be addressed in the agreements. The goal of the workshop is to make business development teams or inhouse counsel aware of what they should have in the back of their minds when entering into partnering discussions or negotiating a term sheet.

Who will lead the workshop?:

Dr. Monika Richter advises national and international biotechnology/pharmaceuticals companies on various commercial legal matters related to the development, manufacturing and commercialization of medicinal products, with a particular focus on strategic alliances, research and development collaborations, license agreements, commercial manufacturing and supply agreements and distribution agreements. Her work likewise includes financing and corporate transactions as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Given her Polish background, Monika Richter is active in the Eastern European market, regularly speaking at industry conferences in Poland and advising Polish clients on several cross-border collaborations in the life sciences sector.

Workshop conducted in English

As part of the workshop ticket you get:

• participation in a selected workshop
• access to the exhibition zone,
• opportunity to participate in B2B meetings
• access to the investor zone.
• lunch and coffee breaks