- Partners: 4
- Assistants: 7
- Other fee-earners: 1
The Firm Roiter Zucker is the UK's only specialist Life Sciences Practice. With a reputation based upon its ability to combine technical legal expertise and industry knowledge with entrepreneurial flair and commercial acumen, the firm has consistently delivered unparalleled successes for its diverse range of clients, many of whom the firm has taken from start up to full listing. The firm strives not just to meet clients' expectations but also to exceed them. The majority of instructions come from long established clients, some of whom have been with the firm for more than 25 years. The firm is recognised as being one of the best in the UK in its core areas of expertise: intellectual property, regulatory and competition law.
Principal Areas of Work RZ has a formidable reputation for advising in relation to all types of intellectual property: patents, trademarks, copyright, design rights, confidential information and data protection. Since its inception over 25 years ago, the firm has acted exclusively for generic phama companies in patent actions before both the national courts and the European Patent Office. It is considered to “punch above its weight” and to be “a force to be reckoned with.” It has acted on many leading cases including: Lundbeck v. Teva (escitalopram) and HN Norton & Co. v. Merrell Dow (terfenadine). In addition to its litigation expertise, the firm provides wide ranging transactional advice and due diligence IP support.
Competition Work: RZ regularly advises on the interface between monopolistic intellectual property rights and competition issues. It advised pharmaceutical parallel importers Dowelhurst Limited and Swingward Limited in their successful defence of proceedings commenced against them by GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim. This case resulted in two separate references to the European Court of Justice and is considered one of the leading cases in Europe on trade mark infringement and exhaustion of rights. The firm also has strong anti-trust expertise. RZ was instructed in relation to the SFO's failed prosecution of various generic pharmaceutical companies for alleged conspiracy to defraud the NHS - a prosecution rumoured to be one of the largest brought by the SFO to date.
Company/Commercial: RZ has drafted and negotiated almost every type of agreement relating to the creation, exploitation and disposal of intellectual property as well as Contract Research Organisation agreements, Investigator Initiated Trial agreements (IITs) and Clinical Research Grant agreements (CRGAs). It has also advised on the formation of new venture capital funds, companies and joint ventures worldwide as well as acquisitions, disposals and funding issues.
Life Sciences: RZ acts for many of the major international generic manufacturers, almost every parallel distributor of pharmaceuticals in the UK, their trade association, small R&D companies and an increasing number of Biotechs, University Spin-out companies and specialist venture capital funds and investors. In addition to undertaking IP, competition and company commercial work for clients in this business sector, it also advises in relation to investigations and enforcement proceedings commenced by the MHRA under the Medicines Act and related legislation.
Areas of PracticeIntellectual Property (inc. Pharmaceutical): 75%Commercial: 15%Competition: 10%