Explore how AI is reshaping drug development and patent strategy. AI modelling and structural analysis, particularly of proteins, can accelerate R&D and identify novel small and large molecules suitable for therapy. Equally, machine learning can chart paths around complex patents and thickets to design alternative molecules, with significant repercussions for patentees, biosimilar and generic manufacturers, and regulatory pathways. This roundtable examines past examples, then AI's role in litigation: running wide-ranging validity searches beyond what was previously possible, and supporting infringement arguments, including under the doctrine of equivalents.
Mike Gilbert
Mike Gilbert is a partner at Marks & Clerk in London. He is an Intellectual Property (IP) lawyer who advises clients in a wide variety of business sectors on issues including litigation and dispute resolution, IP strategy and risk limitation, due diligence projects and commercial and licensing transactions involving IP. His primary focus and expertise, however, lies in life sciences patent litigation where he is considered to be one of the UK’s leading practitioners. He has represented some of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical corporations in complex patent and technical disputes including Genentech, Roche, Chugai, Pfizer, Wyeth, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Daiichi Sankyo, AbbVie, Amgen and Illumina to name but a few. Mike is well known for his strategic and creative vision and is consistently recommended in various legal directories including the World IP Review, Legal 500, Who's Who Legal and the IAM Patent 1000 guide, which describe him as “always at the top of the pile, especially for pharmaceutical matters”. Mike graduated from Cambridge University in 1989 with a degree in chemical engineering.
Dan McGrath
Dan is an experienced patent litigator who advises clients on a wide range of intellectual property issues. He has considerable experience in biopharmaceutical patent and supplementary protection certificate litigation and has represented clients in some of the most complex technical disputes tried in the English courts. Dan also has significant expertise in litigation before the Unified Patent Court and is currently instructed on several high-profile patent disputes. Dan sits on the BioIndustry Association's IP Advisory Committee and its SPC sub-committee.
In the UK, Dan has advised clients in actions in the High Court and Court of Appeal. Dan regularly manages multi-jurisdictional disputes, co-ordinating and working with litigation teams globally. He has been involved in hearings at the Unified Patent Court, European Patent Office, District Court in The Hague and in North America.
With a keen interest in scientific innovation, Dan is readily able to master highly technical issues and has a strong grasp of the technical and commercial landscape in which his clients operate
