Norton Rose Fulbright Expands Pharma Disputes Team; November Panel on Patent Litigation Set
Norton Rose Fulbright expands its pharma and biotech disputes team with February 2026 partner hires. A November 9, 2026 panel will examine shifting patent litigation, including Orange Book, Hatch-Waxman, and BPCIA disputes.
Norton Rose Fulbright is expanding its pharma and biotech disputes team, as pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent litigation is entering a new phase. Challenges to exclusivity increasingly arise at the intersection of patent law, FDA regulatory frameworks, competition policy and commercial market-entry strategy.
Partner appointments announced in February 2026:
- 12 February 2026: New Bloomfield Hills partner handles patent, trade secrets, and contracts disputes, and marks the sixth partner to join the firm in 2026.
- 6 February 2026: The New York-based partner will advise biotech, pharma, and technology clients on patent prosecution, IP strategy and venture-backed transactions.
- 5 February 2026: The trial group, which brings "exceptional litigation talent", joins larger firm in Texas and Washington, DC, coinciding with the announcement of the Winston Taylor merger.
Orange Book listing challenges and delisting counterclaims, antitrust scrutiny, aggressive generic launch strategies and evolving approaches to Hatch-Waxman litigation are changing the risk calculus for both innovators and challengers. Biologics and biosimilars are generating their own disputes under the BPCIA, while emerging therapeutic technologies and increasingly complex patent estates are creating new litigation pressure points.
A panel discussion, "The New Pharma Patent Battlefield: Litigation Strategy for the Next Wave of Life Sciences Disputes," is scheduled for November 9, 2026 at 5:30 PM EST. The panel will take a forward-looking look at the changing life sciences patent litigation landscape and where the next important battles are likely to emerge. Panelists will discuss Orange Book and regulatory strategy, generic and biosimilar launch risk, antitrust and competition claims, the interaction between patent litigation and FDA pathways, and the practical realities of protecting—or challenging—commercial exclusivity. The discussion will focus on how experienced life sciences litigators and in-house counsel assess risk across an entire dispute, how litigation strategy is changing, and what developments should be keeping companies awake at night.