Global law firm Ropes & Gray today announced that Filko Prugo, M.S., J.D., has joined its New York office as partner and chair of the firm’s life sciences intellectual property litigation practice. Mr. Prugo, renowned for his understanding of life sciences patent issues, is a first-chair litigator and a nationally recognized practitioner of Hatch-Waxman Act and Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) matters.
Ropes & Gray’s IP practices are thriving, and Mr. Prugo’s arrival follows the recent addition of Scott McKeown, who joined Ropes & Gray in August 2017 as a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and chair of the firm’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) practice.
The addition of Mr. Prugo will especially benefit Ropes & Gray’s clients in the pharmaceutical and biologics space. He brings a solid foundation in chemistry and biotechnology, along with 20 years of experience representing the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies. Mr. Prugo has been extensively involved in all aspects of contested patent matters, and is among a handful of attorneys who have argued before all three patent venues of importance to life sciences clients in the United States: federal district courts for Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigation, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Mr. Prugo has led more than 20 litigation trial teams in his career. He has successfully tried and won cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on behalf of Novartis and Sanofi Genzyme. He also argued a pair of IPR proceedings on behalf of Sanofi Genzyme—the first relating to marketed biologics—and he recently helped obtain favorable settlements on behalf of AstraZeneca in Hatch-Waxman litigations and IPRs involving a hormone-dependent breast cancer treatment. He joins Ropes & Gray from O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where he was partner and co-founder of the firm’s Hatch-Waxman and BPCIA practice.
Filko’s significant ANDA litigation experience, winning litigation record and deep understanding of both chemistry and biotechnology will benefit our life sciences clients immediately, said Andrew Thomases, head of Ropes & Gray’s IP litigation practice. We are excited to welcome him to the firm.
Our focus has been to grow Ropes & Gray in New York and to provide the highest-quality counsel to our clients, said Eva Carman, co-managing partner of Ropes & Gray’s New York office. Filko’s energy and experience are a perfect combination for the firm and to further our efforts here.
Mr. Prugo has been widely recognized for his excellence in patent litigation, including in The Legal 500 US, LMG Life Sciences and, most recently, in the 2017 edition of Who’s Who Legal: Patents. He is also a frequent speaker on developments in patent law, specifically as they concern Hatch-Waxman and BPCIA litigation.
A registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Mr. Prugo received his J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada, an M.S. in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University (2017), and a B.S. (with first-class honors) in chemistry from York University in Toronto. He is a member of the Pharma & Biotech Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association.
When the opportunity to join Ropes & Gray in a leadership position presented itself, it seemed like a natural next step, Mr. Prugo said. My extensive chemistry and biotech patent litigation experience nicely complements the firm’s strong focus on the life sciences industry.
