I happened across an article this weekend on biotech licensing, which I would recommend to any readers who are contemplating licensing negotiations in the near future.

The article, "Biotech Patent Licensing: Key Considerations in Deal Negotiations," was written by Jeffrey P. Somers, an attorney at the Massachusetts firm of Morse Barnes-Pendleton, PC.  I thought Jeffrey did did an excellent job of capturing the essence of biotech licensing and the issues that must be considered in drafting and negotiating a biotech license. 

Jeffrey’s article addresses five topics of interest: (i) field of use restrictions; (ii) the multi-purpose compound; (iii) special issues related to non-exclusive licenses; (iv) the payment term; and (v) rights to the drug master file upon early termination of the license.  His article also provides practice tips related to each of the topics. 

While Jeffrey issues a disclaimer in his article that his background is in representing the pharmaceutical company and that he is therefore biased toward that perspective, this article should be informative to both sides of the negotiating table.