Our patent and trade mark attorneys and IP solicitors specialise in digital health and digital therapeutics.
The relentless advances in mobile technology and artificial intelligence are driving innovation in digital health and digital therapeutics.
The new generation of digital therapeutics are no longer “just apps”; they are highly sophisticated digital tools that genuinely improve patient outcomes and their ability to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder or disease has understandably caught the attention of big pharma.
Pharma companies recognised immediately that digital therapeutics offer them an opportunity to increase the impact their drugs will have on their patients and reduce their patients’ reliance on local health services.
As a result, many pharmaceutical companies have begun to forge strategic partnerships with tech companies to take full advantage of what is predicted to be a $9 billion market by 2025.
However, increased collaboration has the potential to increase risk.
This risk is not only linked to market regulation and market acceptance but also the access to/use of the health data you’ll generate and how your end product’s ownership is defined and commercialised.
As a result, these new collaborative ventures need a new type of highly specialist adviser. You need patent attorneys who understand both the pharma and tech elements of the product. Just as importantly, you need patent attorneys who know best to protect, leverage, and deliver both parts in tandem to maximise the commercial return each product achieves.
This is where we can help.
We know exactly what it takes to support a new digital health collaboration between a pharma and tech business. We can put together a team of highly experienced patent attorneys and IP solicitors who understand exactly what is required to successfully marry the vastly different expertise of the founding members in a way that will create a viable digital health business.
Our teams also contain attorneys with both a healthcare and a technology perspective. By working together, they can offer advice that combines their direct experience of disease, treatment, pharmacology, and the regulatory environment with their practical knowledge of software, data management, and data analysis.
Having had extensive involvement in a growing number of digital health projects, we also know the following factors need to be tackled at the earliest possible stage:
- Clearly defining who owns what and how all parties will be remunerated from day one.
- Defining how the ‘data goldmine’ that will be created will be owned and used.
- Creating a business model that allows all partners to recognise the greatest return from all the potential revenue sources.
- Ensuring you have the combined capacity to manage the increase in demand your partnership will generate.
- Keeping the number of partnerships under control as too many parties can make progress difficult to manage.
- Making sure you keep sight of what is best for your end users (patients and clinicians) and keep their needs front and centre.
WHY SHOULD A NEW DIGITAL HEALTH VENTURE TALK TO POTTER CLARKSON?
Irrespective of whether you are the pharmaceutical partner or the tech partner, there are two key areas we will address to protect your assets, market position, and future revenues:
Intellectual Property
We will identify all the innovations present and then construct the IP strategy you need to deliver your business plan, always bearing in mind which partner owns what if a collaboration is involved.
Again, to ensure your IP strategy is effective and enforceable, we will approach it from both a pharmaceutical and technology point of view, so that both your software and clinical innovation are fully protected.
Legal
It is highly likely that once you start to put your business plan into action you will find that you need to add a stronger legal structure to protect your planned trading arrangements. This could require a new set of domestic or cross-border legal agreements, contracts, or licensing arrangements with your partners, suppliers, and customers.
And given the nature of today’s highly competitive healthcare industry, you could also find yourself in need of experienced litigators should your position or your IP be challenged.
Our multi-disciplinary team is different from most firms in that our patent attorneys and IP solicitors work closely together. This guarantees you receive the complete range of IP and legal support you need to progress and create the highest level of value from your digital therapeutics venture.
If you would like to find out more about our unique multi-disciplinary approach and our experience within the digital health and digital innovation sector, please download a free copy of our white paper ‘Maximising the commercial value of digital therapeutics’.
Or if you'd like to discuss a potential digital health project, please contact our specialist MedTech and digital therapeutics team today.
