Life sciences
Life sciences is an exciting industry featuring innovators working at the very cutting edge of improving the health and wellbeing of humans, from the common cold to cancer.
We are proud to support clients that can make a genuine difference to people’s lives, whether it is a HealthTech start-up using augmented reality as a rehab technique for patients with neurological diseases; an international drug discovery company pushing the boundaries of medicine; a household-name optician detecting eye conditions early with a new scanning technique.
Why choose us?
Our long history of working in healthcare across the UK, Ireland and beyond means we know the industry inside-out. A strong institutional knowledge of the NHS and health systems around the world brings a deep understanding of the fast-changing policy, strategy and legislative environment.
This means we can quickly understand public and independent sector clients’ challenges and identify solutions to fit their specific needs. We will not put a lid on your ambitions; we’ll help you achieve them.
Our life sciences lawyers can also connect you with the right people, whether it’s within our expansive network of senior public and private sector contacts, or to other legal and HR specialists across our firm of more than 1,200 people.
It is for these reasons that alongside 150 NHS and 150 local authority clients, we now support a growing number of life sciences organisations providing products and services including:
- Medical devices.
- Diagnostics.
- Pharmaceuticals.
- Healthcare technology.
- Laboratory hardware.
These range from start-ups to globally-recognised names, including Bionical Solutions, Sygnature Discovery, CARE Fertility, Riverside Medical, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority.
How we can support your life sciences organisation
Our legal service offer is relevant to a broad range of life science activities and products, including clinical trials, pharmaceutical development, lab product developments, medical devices and MedTech manufacturing, HealthTech and AI development, genomics, research and development, imaging, microbiology, bioinformatics, biobanking, epidemiology, fertility services, diagnostics and pathology.
Corporate and commercial advice
Our corporate team is known for its extensive experience in domestic and international M&A transactions, venture capital and private equity work, corporate governance advice and solvent reorganisations.
We advise on a full range of transactions – from large cross-border projects to small-scale reorganisations and changes to capital structure – including acquisitions, disposals and investments.
Corporate transactions for health
Commercial and outsourcing for health
Expert regulatory advice
We advise on the range of regulation that applies to the life sciences industry. Our aim is to strategically assess the way in which regulation applies to a client and then support it to meet the standards set by regulators, whether in relation to product compliance and safety, environmental regulation, wider health and safety considerations, or protection of data – both personal and corporate.
We are regularly asked for support on registration requirements and processes for regulators, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England, Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) and Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) in Ireland. We have in-depth knowledge of working with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as for meeting the expectations of regulators such as the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Health Research Authority (HRA) and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
It is essential that clients can rely on lawyers who understand the regulatory field and can apply this knowledge to the offer they want to make in improving health and wellbeing. This will often include advising on the relative merits of different regulatory regimes for research and development across the world, and the size of the opportunity which may, or may not, be open within the life sciences industry in the UK and Ireland.
Specialist data protection, information security and AI advice
Our advice spans the day-to-day use of personal data related to employees, patients or other people, through to very sensitive privacy and sharing issues that all organisations in the life sciences industry face. We understand the requirements of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and have worked on international data arrangements and agreements on a cross-jurisdictional basis to support clients’ businesses.
We have extensive experience advising on privacy issues associated with apps, research projects and sharing across international boundaries. More recently, our work has involved looking at duties and obligations related to cloud-based storage and anonymisation to enable learning to be shared across the industry.
Our work on new and developing AI has strongly focused on data ownership and security, being clear that strong agreements are needed in supply chains. Without clarity on data issues, clients can face difficulty in developing and marketing new AI. Our team is regularly asked to provide training on AI regulation, data protection, personal data breaches, subject access requests, and sharing data for learning and research.
Dedicated digital and projects team
We advise on the procurement of digital solutions, ranging from major change and transformation programmes to SaaS agreements, professional consultancy agreements and software licences. We also advise on support and maintenance contracts across a number of differing solutions including artificial intelligence, blockchain and the cloud. Our support includes contractual risk mitigation, governance frameworks, negotiation strategies and risk assessment.
Experienced intellectual property practice
Our experienced and award-winning IP team helps life sciences companies and public bodies to protect, commercialise and enforce their intellectual property rights. We help clients to draft collaboration agreements, establish innovation capture schemes, transactions and licensing, and can assist with the IP elements of complex software projects.
Our patent litigation team has worked on complex life science disputes, from inhalers to HIV drugs. We’ve also helped various health clients with copyright and trade mark issues and disputes.
Dispute resolution
Our litigation lawyers provide comprehensive support and advice on issues involving litigation and other forms of dispute resolution in the UK, Ireland and internationally.
We have deep and broad expertise, ranging from providing support to put distressed IT projects back on track, through to advising on step-in rights, termination and exit strategies where projects cannot be rescued. Other services include project delay liability advice, third-party liability strategic advice, alternative dispute resolution, breach of warranty, injunctions, breach of restrictive covenants, fraud and misrepresentation.
The team is also focused on developing litigation issues relating to the use of AI in developing and delivering life sciences offerings and has worked with client on data ownership, liability obligations and programming disputes.
Our lawyers work with healthcare commissioners, providers and regulators to support life sciences innovation across the world.
We have extensive experience across the government-funded, privately-funded and insured healthcare and life sciences markets. This means we understand the rapidly changing environment our clients are operating in.
We also maintain close working relationships with law firms around the world as a member of Pangea Net – an international network of lawyers. Coordinating overseas advice on behalf of your business is a key part of our offer to clients.
Key statistics
- 200+ international law firms worldwide are in our wider network.
- 40% of our work each year is cross-border.
- 300+ health and life sciences clients.
- 60+ jurisdictions in which we advise clients on an annual basis.
Life Sciences Connect
Our commitment to enabling our clients to constantly evolve, connect and keep up to date with the latest developments has led us to start a new community for our clients – Life Sciences Connect.
It is focused on informative sessions both in-person and online across the UK and Ireland, as well as internationally every two months, giving clients members the opportunity to share common challenges, learn best practice from each other and receive updates from experts.
Dedicated higher education team
As the starting point for research and development, universities are the lynchpin of life sciences. We can open doors between academics, companies and investors within the research ecosystem.
One firm approach
All our clients need is one point of contact within Browne Jacobson and they’ll do the rest by putting you in touch with relevant internal specialists. We don’t work in siloes – everyone’s happy to muck in to support our clients.
Legal updates and bulletins
Our team can provide you with email bulletins and legal updates to keep you informed about recent cases and changes in the law, which are produced as and when changes arise.
Grow
Early-stage life sciences businesses will benefit from Grow, our legal support programme exclusively for start-ups.
It supports companies at any stage of the start-up journey, from protecting an idea through to a successful exit, and is sensitive to the trials and tribulations of building a business from scratch.
We’ll provide clients with a dedicated Grow adviser, who will work with you on a range of services and facilitate introductions within our network of industry and investment contacts.
Instant In-House
We appreciate you may need to resource your legal support in an innovative way. In our Instant In-House package, we act as your extended in-house team while providing budget certainty by spreading your legal spend equally throughout the year.
This fixed-price retainer arrangement relies upon a close and trusting relationship with our clients. We gain an understanding of your requirements, charge a fixed monthly fee and appreciate there will be some months in the year where you require more support than others.
Typically, our Instant In-House team supports clients with legal services including commercial contracts, information law advice, regulatory support, IT contracts and licences, employment and HR services, intellectual property, corporate governance and preliminary advice on disputes.
Ascensus
Our leadership programme for in-house counsel and business leaders brings people into the same room to discuss common challenges and learn how others have already navigated the speed bump you’ve just hit, offering potential solutions to your issue.
Training and resources
Clients have access to our wide range of training resources through our general seminar and webinar programme, which is complemented by on-demand legal updates and training videos.
We also provide bespoke training on areas that directly your business, which can be delivered virtually and in-person.
Ad hoc advice
We appreciate the need to have a 'sounding board' for legal issues and matters being dealt with in-house. We encourage early engagement with our clients and find that this avoids problems later down the line.
Membership bodies
We’re members of key trade bodies, such as UK International Healthcare Management Association, UAE-UK Business Council, Healthcare World and the PorterShed entrepreneurial hub in Galway – the emerging life sciences capital in Ireland.
Industry events
Our lawyers regularly speak at and attend key life sciences conferences across the world. Recent events in which we’ve contributed to panel sessions include the AI in Healthcare Summit during Arab Health, Abu Dhabi Global Health Week and HLTH Europe in Amsterdam.
Thought leadership
We’ve authored and contributed to industry reports that aim to address healthcare challenges and opportunities. In the Opportunities for collaboration between the UK and UAE in cancer care white paper, we advised on legal and regulatory hurdles to effective cross-border data-sharing, which is vital to harnessing AI and emerging technologies in healthcare.
Our legal service offer is relevant to a broad range of life science activities and products, including clinical trials, pharmaceutical development, lab product developments, medical devices and MedTech manufacturing, HealthTech and AI development, genomics, research and development, imaging, microbiology, bioinformatics, biobanking, epidemiology, fertility services, diagnostics and pathology.
Corporate and commercial advice
Our corporate team is known for its extensive experience in domestic and international M&A transactions, venture capital and private equity work, corporate governance advice and solvent reorganisations.
We advise on a full range of transactions – from large cross-border projects to small-scale reorganisations and changes to capital structure – including acquisitions, disposals and investments.
Corporate transactions for health
Commercial and outsourcing for health
Expert regulatory advice
We advise on the range of regulation that applies to the life sciences industry. Our aim is to strategically assess the way in which regulation applies to a client and then support it to meet the standards set by regulators, whether in relation to product compliance and safety, environmental regulation, wider health and safety considerations, or protection of data – both personal and corporate.
We are regularly asked for support on registration requirements and processes for regulators, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England, Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) and Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) in Ireland. We have in-depth knowledge of working with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as for meeting the expectations of regulators such as the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Health Research Authority (HRA) and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
It is essential that clients can rely on lawyers who understand the regulatory field and can apply this knowledge to the offer they want to make in improving health and wellbeing. This will often include advising on the relative merits of different regulatory regimes for research and development across the world, and the size of the opportunity which may, or may not, be open within the life sciences industry in the UK and Ireland.
Specialist data protection, information security and AI advice
Our advice spans the day-to-day use of personal data related to employees, patients or other people, through to very sensitive privacy and sharing issues that all organisations in the life sciences industry face. We understand the requirements of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and have worked on international data arrangements and agreements on a cross-jurisdictional basis to support clients’ businesses.
We have extensive experience advising on privacy issues associated with apps, research projects and sharing across international boundaries. More recently, our work has involved looking at duties and obligations related to cloud-based storage and anonymisation to enable learning to be shared across the industry.
Our work on new and developing AI has strongly focused on data ownership and security, being clear that strong agreements are needed in supply chains. Without clarity on data issues, clients can face difficulty in developing and marketing new AI. Our team is regularly asked to provide training on AI regulation, data protection, personal data breaches, subject access requests, and sharing data for learning and research.
Dedicated digital and projects team
We advise on the procurement of digital solutions, ranging from major change and transformation programmes to SaaS agreements, professional consultancy agreements and software licences. We also advise on support and maintenance contracts across a number of differing solutions including artificial intelligence, blockchain and the cloud. Our support includes contractual risk mitigation, governance frameworks, negotiation strategies and risk assessment.
Experienced intellectual property practice
Our experienced and award-winning IP team helps life sciences companies and public bodies to protect, commercialise and enforce their intellectual property rights. We help clients to draft collaboration agreements, establish innovation capture schemes, transactions and licensing, and can assist with the IP elements of complex software projects.
Our patent litigation team has worked on complex life science disputes, from inhalers to HIV drugs. We’ve also helped various health clients with copyright and trade mark issues and disputes.
Dispute resolution
Our litigation lawyers provide comprehensive support and advice on issues involving litigation and other forms of dispute resolution in the UK, Ireland and internationally.
We have deep and broad expertise, ranging from providing support to put distressed IT projects back on track, through to advising on step-in rights, termination and exit strategies where projects cannot be rescued. Other services include project delay liability advice, third-party liability strategic advice, alternative dispute resolution, breach of warranty, injunctions, breach of restrictive covenants, fraud and misrepresentation.
The team is also focused on developing litigation issues relating to the use of AI in developing and delivering life sciences offerings and has worked with client on data ownership, liability obligations and programming disputes.
Our lawyers work with healthcare commissioners, providers and regulators to support life sciences innovation across the world.
We have extensive experience across the government-funded, privately-funded and insured healthcare and life sciences markets. This means we understand the rapidly changing environment our clients are operating in.
We also maintain close working relationships with law firms around the world as a member of Pangea Net – an international network of lawyers. Coordinating overseas advice on behalf of your business is a key part of our offer to clients.
Key statistics
- 200+ international law firms worldwide are in our wider network.
- 40% of our work each year is cross-border.
- 300+ health and life sciences clients.
- 60+ jurisdictions in which we advise clients on an annual basis.
Life Sciences Connect
Our commitment to enabling our clients to constantly evolve, connect and keep up to date with the latest developments has led us to start a new community for our clients – Life Sciences Connect.
It is focused on informative sessions both in-person and online across the UK and Ireland, as well as internationally every two months, giving clients members the opportunity to share common challenges, learn best practice from each other and receive updates from experts.
Dedicated higher education team
As the starting point for research and development, universities are the lynchpin of life sciences. We can open doors between academics, companies and investors within the research ecosystem.
One firm approach
All our clients need is one point of contact within Browne Jacobson and they’ll do the rest by putting you in touch with relevant internal specialists. We don’t work in siloes – everyone’s happy to muck in to support our clients.
Legal updates and bulletins
Our team can provide you with email bulletins and legal updates to keep you informed about recent cases and changes in the law, which are produced as and when changes arise.
Grow
Early-stage life sciences businesses will benefit from Grow, our legal support programme exclusively for start-ups.
It supports companies at any stage of the start-up journey, from protecting an idea through to a successful exit, and is sensitive to the trials and tribulations of building a business from scratch.
We’ll provide clients with a dedicated Grow adviser, who will work with you on a range of services and facilitate introductions within our network of industry and investment contacts.
Instant In-House
We appreciate you may need to resource your legal support in an innovative way. In our Instant In-House package, we act as your extended in-house team while providing budget certainty by spreading your legal spend equally throughout the year.
This fixed-price retainer arrangement relies upon a close and trusting relationship with our clients. We gain an understanding of your requirements, charge a fixed monthly fee and appreciate there will be some months in the year where you require more support than others.
Typically, our Instant In-House team supports clients with legal services including commercial contracts, information law advice, regulatory support, IT contracts and licences, employment and HR services, intellectual property, corporate governance and preliminary advice on disputes.
Ascensus
Our leadership programme for in-house counsel and business leaders brings people into the same room to discuss common challenges and learn how others have already navigated the speed bump you’ve just hit, offering potential solutions to your issue.
Training and resources
Clients have access to our wide range of training resources through our general seminar and webinar programme, which is complemented by on-demand legal updates and training videos.
We also provide bespoke training on areas that directly your business, which can be delivered virtually and in-person.
Ad hoc advice
We appreciate the need to have a 'sounding board' for legal issues and matters being dealt with in-house. We encourage early engagement with our clients and find that this avoids problems later down the line.
Membership bodies
We’re members of key trade bodies, such as UK International Healthcare Management Association, UAE-UK Business Council, Healthcare World and the PorterShed entrepreneurial hub in Galway – the emerging life sciences capital in Ireland.
Industry events
Our lawyers regularly speak at and attend key life sciences conferences across the world. Recent events in which we’ve contributed to panel sessions include the AI in Healthcare Summit during Arab Health, Abu Dhabi Global Health Week and HLTH Europe in Amsterdam.
Thought leadership
We’ve authored and contributed to industry reports that aim to address healthcare challenges and opportunities. In the Opportunities for collaboration between the UK and UAE in cancer care white paper, we advised on legal and regulatory hurdles to effective cross-border data-sharing, which is vital to harnessing AI and emerging technologies in healthcare.
Life sciences expertise
4Ways Healthcare Limited
Advised the management team of 4Ways Healthcare Limited on its successful secondary management buyout of the tele-radiology business backed by ECI Partners.
Instant In-House
Using our bespoke retainer product that provides clients with instant access to a team of our lawyers for a fixed monthly fee, we’ve assisted drug discovery company Sygnature Discovery on contractual matters arising from its master services agreements and work orders, and supported all of Bionical Health’s commercial-related work, which includes contract reviews, risk reports and commercial strategy planning.
Care Fertility Group (CARE)
Advised the UK’s largest private fertility clinic on its acquisition of IVF treatment provider, Centre for Reproduction & Gynaecology Wales (CRGW).
Thrive LDN
We supported the development of a data framework across London and then nationally to share information on suicide risks. We analysed the ability to share data under both statutory and common law schemes, including how to anonymise without affecting the quality of learning.
Key contacts
Gerard Hanratty
Partner
Clare Auty
Partner
Jeanne Kelly
Partner
Mark Daniels
Partner
Emma Capper
Partner
Victoria Thourgood
Partner
Vicky Tomlinson
Partner
Phillip Pugh
Partner
Gavin Bluett
Partner
Chereta Edmeade
Partner
Nathalie Jacoby-Danesh
Partner
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