As the leader of the Jones Day’s global IP practice, Insogna has served as an adviser to numerous pharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co.-owned Idenix Pharmaceuticals and Celgene Corp.
His work began over 25 years ago in life sciences patent law as an evening law student and boutique intellectual property apprentice.
He has defended patents on such popular drugs as Humira and Revlimid.
This year, he cited his work on a case for Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co. Ltd. as some of his most important work. Kyowa Hakko Kirin and its U.S. subsidiary BioWa sued Aragen Bioscience Inc. and Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. over infringement on three patents for cell lines which rapidly produce antibodies.
The defendants challenged the validity of the patents and filed inter partes reviews.
In October, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board held that the defendants had not shown a reasonable likelihood that they would prevail in showing the unpatentability of the challenged claim and denied the defendants’ request for a rehearing. Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co. Ltd. and BioWa, Inc. v. Aragen Bioscience, Inc. and Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Nos. IPR2017-01252, 01262, 01254 (IPR, filed Oct. 23, 2017).
The case settled in March for an undisclosed sum prior to a jury trial, and the defendants agreed that the patents are valid and exited the business.
Insogna said that this was an impactful case for his client because they were successful in stopping infringers.
He also said that he views teamwork as a critical component of his continued success.
In his work for the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc., he triumphed in three cases involving complex IPR and patent challenges.
“Each of these cases was really kind of heavily involved in the field of formulation technology and, specifically, formulating antibodies,” he said.
Insogna said that his team became steeped in the art and worked closely with experts.
He said that he views his approach to his cases as consistently unique.
“There are certainly, in life sciences or pharma, or biotech patent litigation ... some of the keys to success are understanding the business and the industry,” he said.
In addition, he said it is also critical to understand the technology, the Food & Drug Administration approval process, and the machinery of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
— Caroline Hart
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