Pharmaceutical Expert Witness Service

A licensing agreement is typically structured around a development plan and may include cost and profit sharing, regulatory responsibilities, Intellectual Property ownership/management, economic opportunities, governance and exit provisions. Due to the complicated nature of such agreements, when things do not work out as originally anticipated, the parties make claims against one another and these often need independent input, such as the one we provide.

Every collaboration agreement includes diligence obligations on the parties. Typically, the licensor undertakes to use “Reasonable Efforts” or “Commercially Reasonable Efforts” in developing and commercialising. If such efforts are allegedly not met, this can give rise to claims on behalf of the licensee. We can assist in determining whether, based on industry standards, the diligence obligations were reasonably met.

Collaborations in the pharma and biotech industry involve licensing the rights to Intellectual Property in return for payments such as milestone payments, royalties on sales, profit sharing and other. If these payments are delayed or the amounts are not as expected, potential clams arise on lost revenues which can run into hundreds of millions. We help to estimate such losses and provide expert opinions on the potential default and breaches as the case may be.

We can act as industry experts when required to provide support and input in cases where disagreements, disputes and claims arise in collaborations. We can also act as independent experts in cases of mediation and arbitration where the parties require dispute resolution. We can assess the diligence obligations and provide expert opinion on “industry standards”, estimate potential losses and advise on settlements.