Arnold & Porter's Life Sciences Practice Named a Law360 'Practice Group of the Year'
The Arnold & Porter Life Sciences practice's stellar work was recently recognized as a Law360 "Practice Group of the Year." The Life Sciences team's marquee year included advising AstraZeneca and others on the development of COVID-19 vaccines. The firm was also heavily involved in advising various life science companies on the novel issues arising from the development and deployment of numerous COVID-19 therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics.
Daniel Kracov, co-chair of the firm's Life Sciences & Healthcare Regulatory practice, told Law360 that Arnold & Porter's arsenal in this space is nearly unmatched, with lawyers involved in transactions, government investigations, legislative and intellectual property matters, to name a few.
"We are one of the few firms in the world that could execute on this type of complex life sciences matter given our sophisticated capabilities in all of those areas," Kracov said. "We brought to the table not just the commercial and government transactions capabilities, but the intellectual property aspect, the regulatory experience, an understanding of the relevant liability frameworks, and just the knowledge of the complex legal issues implicated in the pandemic response."
Partner Kristen Riemenschneider, who co-led Arnold & Porter's multidisciplinary team that advised AstraZeneca in the COVID-19 vaccine work, told Law360 that representing AstraZeneca in this "globally important project" is important to the firm, as is AstraZeneca's "tremendous commitment" to offering its COVID-19 vaccine to people at no cost, particularly in developing countries.
Law360 also highlighted the firm's unparalleled life sciences work in the courtroom. In March 2020, Arnold & Porter's patent litigation team secured a significant and complete victory for clients Hologic and Grifols following a seven-day jury trial in the District of Delaware, a jury ruled in favor of Hologic and Grifols, finding the bioMerieux patent invalid based on the prior invention of Hologic's predecessor, GenProbe, Inc., and based on obviousness over the prior art.
"It was a complete defense win," Intellectual Property practice co-chair Matthew Wolf told Law360. "Juries very rarely will invalidate patents like that."
Other key highlights that scored the Life Sciences team the "Practice Group of the Year" title include the representation of Bristol Myers Squibb in its $74 Billion Acquisition of Celgene and AbbVie's $63 Billion Acquisition of Allergan from an antitrust perspective.
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