Life Sciences

James leads the Pharmaceuticals team at Carpmaels & Ransford. His practice focuses exclusively on medicinal chemistry inventions for pharmaceutical innovators and has a reputation for his imaginative approaches to legal and technical strategies on the most commercially important cases. His work is inevitably contentious in nature and he has considerable experience in conducting multi-opponent European Patent Office (EPO) opposition proceedings and James is one of only a handful of advocates to have first-hand experience of defending EPO oppositions with more than ten opponents. He brings practical experience of the subtle interactions of patent, supplementary protection certificate and regulatory law to these commercial situations.

Individually recommended in MIP and IAM Patent 1000, and noted as “excellent” by Legal 500, James is particularly known for successfully prosecuting and defending NCE, combination, formulation, second medical use and dosage regimen patents on marketed products. In this sphere, he has advised on most of Novartis’ blockbuster products and has led numerous successful EPO opposition defences to generic challenges, most notably the multi-party oppositions against Novartis’ Exforge (valsartan/amlodipine), Glivec (imatinib) and Jakavi (ruxolitinib) products. He is also the lead European outside patent counsel for Gilead’s HIV and HBV portfolios, successfully defending Gilead’s TAF and cobicistat medicines, present in a variety of their blockbuster antiviral products, against multi-opponent oppositions. He represents Roche in EPO opposition and appeal proceedings and is a lead counsel for Janssen’s small molecule portfolio.

James’ EPO opposition work frequently brings him into contact with parallel national litigation, and he is particularly sought out to bring his EPO and technical experience to litigation strategies throughout Europe and the world.Outside the small molecule space, James has a long-standing relationship with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, protecting its growing pipeline of antisense candidates.

MChem (University of Oxford)Chartered Patent AttorneyEuropean Patent Attorney