Intellectual Property

Ewan Townsend is an associate in Arnold & Porter LLP's London office. He is a member of the FDA and Healthcare and Intellectual Property practices.

Ewan focuses primarily on the life sciences sector, with clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device sectors. His practice involves advising clients on intellectual property and regulatory issues relating to medicinal products and medical devices in the UK and at the EU level.

Ewan assists major pharmaceutical companies in drafting and negotiating commercial agreements relating to the  manufacture, promotion, distribution, and sale of medicinal products and medical devices. He also advises both companies and industry bodies on issues such as supply-chain structuring, life cycle management, pricing, parallel imports, advertising and promotion, brand enforcement, and data protection.

In addition to his work in private practice, Ewan has recently spent time on secondment to GlaxoSmithKline, where he spent six months in its legal team advising on global manufacturing and supply issues.

Ewan is committed to pro bono matters and works closely with IPSEA, a charity offering free advice to parents of children with special educational needs. He advises on local education authorities’ legal duties to assess and provide for children with special educational needs, and advocates on their parents’ behalf in related appeals to the First Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability).

Mr. Townsend gained an undergraduate degree in natural sciences from Magdalene College, Cambridge University, and completed his Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School.

Intellectual Property Representative Matters

• Represented a major pharmaceutical company in negotiating an exclusive wholesale distribution agreement for all of its medicinal products in the UK.
• Represented a major pharmaceutical company in negotiating an agreement for the manufacture and supply of a medicinal product for sale in various European countries.
• Represented a major pharmaceutical company in negotiating a variety of inter-related agreements with its suppliers relating to the development, contract manufacture, assembly, and supply of an injection pen used to administer a medicinal product.
• Advised a pharmaceutical industry body on the differing approaches to regulation of wholesale dealing in various European countries.
• Advised a pharmaceutical company on the regulation of direct-to-pharmacy and direct-to-patient schemes for the distribution of medicines in a variety of European countries.
• Advised a pharmaceutical company on the licensing requirements for various subsidiaries in a complex multijurisdictional manufacture, supply, and distribution chain.
• Advised a multinational pharmaceutical company on parallel import issues surrounding a product marketed as a medicinal product in certain European countries but as a medical device in others.
• Advised a multinational pharmaceutical company on the risks of off-label promotion of medicinal products in Europe.
• Advised a multinational company on data protection issues arising from the transfer of personal data between the US and the EU.
• Advised a multinational pharmaceutical company on the availability of regulatory data and marketing exclusivity in relation to a recombinant version of an existing synthetic product.