The Legal 500

Dechert’s ‘excellent’ team, including Alain Decombe, Jonathan Schur, Emmanuelle Trombe and Anne-Laure Marcerou, advises investment funds and an extensive client base of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (Baxter, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals). Highlights included assisting GlaxoSmithKline on the acquisition of Algerian group LPA. With ten dedicated lawyers, the firm also has great expertise on regulatory and litigation through Jacques Sivignon.

Salans has a global life-sciences practice led by a well-organised group of ten partners in Paris. The firm has strong corporate expertise in practice head François Vignaud and Jean-Marc Grosperrin, and is also renowned for its regulatory and litigation capabilities in Pascale Poupelin. IP and distribution law are two other areas of expertise, as well as pharmacy tax and transfer pricing thanks to the hiring of Jean-Luc Cuadrado from DLA Piper in 2010. The practice serves a fine client base including Johnson & Johnson, Schering Plough, Procter & Gamble and GlaxoSmithKline. Highlights included advising Pfizer on the acquisition of Wyeth and on its joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline for AIDS treatment, and Warner Chilcott on the acquisition of the ethical pharmaceuticals division of Procter & Gamble.

According to several leading pharmaceutical companies, Simmons & Simmons LLP is ‘the best law firms in the country for product liability work’. Jacques-Antoine Robert heads the firm’s global practice, standing out for his ‘experience and fighting spirit’. The team, which also shows ‘excellent regulatory expertise’, is made up of ‘excellent litigators’, including Alexandre Regniault, who is praised for his ‘strong industry knowledge and pragmatic advice’. The first-class client portfolio consists of pharmaceutical groups, biotechnology companies, private clinics and medical device manufacturers.

Allen & Overy LLP has ‘great business acumen and industry knowledge’, delivering a ‘personalised service’. The firm defends the world’s leading pharmaceutical groups on strategic matters against generic companies with Pierre Lenoir and Laëtitia Bénard being the practice’s pillars for patent, IP, litigation and regulatory issues. Olivier Fréget is also active in the field for competition matters, Noël Chahid-Nouraï for public law and Jean-Patrice Labautière on the corporate side.

Bird & Bird AARPI’s Alain Gorny has wide experience in the life-sciences sector, representing leading medical device, drug, cosmetic and vaccine manufacturers. The three-lawyer team handles regulatory, price, product liability, clinical trial contract and commercial dispute matters.

CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre’s ‘easy to contact’ and ‘reactive’ team has ‘excellent business knowledge’. The firm’s reputation is based on its regulatory expertise, thanks to Bernard Geneste and its tax capabilities. Jean de la Hosseraye is also highly active in the practice for product liability matters. The team advises major pharmaceutical and medical device companies. It won a case against the social security Agency for Bristol-Meyers-Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline regarding the reimbursement of tax payments.

De Gaulle Fleurance & Associés’ practice is led by Jean-Marie Job, who has a strong background in the sector, IP specialist Louis de Gaulle, and Frank Valentin and Brigitte Daille-Duclos who handle product liability disputes. The team runs a busy contractual practice while handling a growing amount of product liability and patent work. The client base includes leading laboratories (Sanofi-Aventis, Schering-Plough), medical device manufacturers and healthcare services companies.

Newly promoted partner Cécile Derycke heads up Hogan Lovells (Paris) LLP’s growing practice. An expert in product liability, she is entrusted by leading laboratories, including Baxter, which she represents on all its cases in France. Derycke is also acting for BrainLAB in a high-profile dispute regarding the alleged radiation of patients in French hospitals. IP is another area of strength in Xavier Buffet Delmas and patent specialist Dominique Ménard, who is representing Eli Lilly in several major cases including against Sandoz. Counsel Mikael Salmela advises large pharmaceutical companies on regulatory issues.

Dedicated to the life sciences field, Intuity advises leading laboratories. The team consists of competition specialist Christophe Hénin, who has an ‘encyclopaedic knowledge of pharmacy’, Anne Servoir and Anne-Catherine Maillols-Perroy, whose is both qualified as a lawyer and a pharmacist. The practice handles competition, distribution, regulatory and litigation matters.

Norton Rose LLP’s Mélanie Thill-Tayara advises leading laboratories on strategic antitrust matters. Medtronic and Schering-Plough are clients, as is Sanofi-Aventis, which the team successfully represented in first-instance proceedings regarding the termination of negotiations with Sepal Pharma over the investments in the development of new cancer-fighting molecules.