Catherine M. Polizzi

When the world changed a year ago, many of Polizzi’s medical and pharmaceutical clients refocused their energies on the coronavirus. As a result, so did she.

Although she can discuss no details at this point, Polizzi said she is working to protect the intellectual property of several companies that are developing vaccines for the COVID-19 virus or that are tackling its complications.

She already has filed several patent applications for those clients.

Polizzi has long been a star in the field of protecting and managing the intellectual property of clients as they create new therapies, drugs and medical technologies.

For instance, she began working with Juno Therapeutics Inc. when it was still a startup in 2014. She guided its patent strategy and valuation when it was acquired by Celgene in 2018, and she did the same for Celgene when it was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in 2019.

Her work for Juno continued this past year as she obtained patents for the company’s new lymphoma drug, which the Food and Drug Administration just approved in February.

She assists clients seeking funding, as well, as she did for SQZ Biotechnologies Co., with both its $65 million finance round in May and its $710 million initial public offering in October.

Her role includes leading the company’s efforts to help investors understand and assess its important intellectual property.

The Boston-area company’s technology to “squeeze” cells has important implications for cell-based therapy, she said. Especially at a developing company like SQZ, “the IP and the technology go hand in hand,” she said.

Polizzi also helps her clients form collaborations with other pharmaceutical companies for special projects, which she did twice for another young Boston company, Dewpoint Therapeutics Inc.

She guided the complicated IP aspects of collaborations the company announced with Merck & Co. in July on an HIV treatment and with Pfizer Inc. in January on treatments for a rare type of muscular dystrophy.

— Don DeBenedictis