• Irena Royzman is the head of Life Sciences at Kramer Levin.  She concentrates on pharmaceutical and biotech patent litigation and proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Irena holds a Ph.D. in biology from MIT and the Whitehead Institute, where she was a NSF fellow. She represents plaintiffs and defendants in some of the most complex pharmaceutical and biotech patent cases.

    Irena has litigated a wide range of subject matters, including small molecules, biologics, recombinant DNA technology, gene therapy, gene editing, manufacturing processes, formulations and drug-eluting medical devices. Irena has significant experience in litigation under the Hatch-Waxman Act and the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA).

    For plaintiffs, Irena has successfully defended generic challenges to patents protecting blockbuster medical therapies, including a multi-billion dollar anti-psychotic drug and a best-selling HIV protease inhibitor. She has also represented an innovator in some of the first cases under the BPCIA, including the first involving an antibody. For defendants, she recently defeated a $530 million claim of patent infringement of a competitor’s biotech patent, obtaining dismissal of all claims and discovery sanctions against the patent owner. In another high-stakes case, she obtained summary judgment of noninfringement and exclusion of plaintiff’s experts under Daubert as well as a full award of attorneys’ fees.

    A registered patent attorney, Irena also handles inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. For patent owners, she has obtained denial of IPR for patents protecting blockbuster drugs, and has leveraged IPR for defendants to obtain freedom to operate. 

    Irena also coordinates US proceedings with parallel ex-US litigation and proceedings in foreign patent offices.  She provides strategic counseling in the area of biologics and pharmaceuticals and advises clients on their IP portfolios and transactions.  Irena also represents clients in high-stakes license disputes involving biotech patents, and, in a dispute concerning the use of a recombinant protein as an enzyme replacement therapy, obtained one of the largest settlement awards over the life of the contract.

    Chambers USA has recognized Irena as a leading lawyer in intellectual property, where she is described as “a very substantive and very bright lawyer.” Benchmark Litigation named her one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” for the last five years and a litigation star in intellectual property in New York. Irena was also named to the Crain’s New York Business 2021 list of Notable Women in Law.

    Irena writes and lectures widely on patent issues.  She has been principal counsel on amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court in some of the most important life sciences cases. Irena also is frequently quoted on patent-related issues, including in the Washington Post, Nature Biotechnology and Pink Sheet.

    Experience

    • Representing two pharmaceutical innovator companies in ANDA actions involving challenges by multiple generic manufacturers to formulation and manufacturing patents protecting a cancer therapy. 

    • Representing a major pharmaceutical company in ANDA actions involving challenges by multiple generic manufacturers to patents protecting a breakthrough treatment for cGVHD and certain B-cell cancers. 

    • Successfully represented a pharmaceutical innovator in a patent infringement action against a 505(b)(2) applicant involving a long-acting treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar disease.

    • Successfully represented a major pharmaceutical company in an ANDA action involving challenges to eight patents protecting a combination drug treatment for HIV/AIDS.

    • Successfully represented a major pharmaceutical company in an ANDA action involving challenges by multiple defendants to patents covering the crystalline form and processes for the manufacture of a blockbuster drug. Obtained summary judgment of infringement. The court found all patents valid and enjoined defendants from infringing the patents.

    • Successfully represented a major pharmaceutical company in an action involving infringement of a patent covering the manufacture of a key component of an HIV drug.

    • Successfully represented a major pharmaceutical company in an ANDA action involving validity challenges by multiple generic manufacturers to patents covering our client’s blockbuster protease inhibitor and methods of its use. After two years of litigation and the close of fact discovery, defendants abandoned their validity challenges and converted their Paragraph IV certifications to Paragraph III certifications.

    • Obtained a judgment of infringement and validity and enjoining defendants from infringing manufacturing patents.

    • Successfully represented a major pharmaceutical company in an ANDA action involving validity and enforceability challenges by multiple defendants to a patent covering a multibillion-dollar antipsychotic drug.

    • Obtained dismissal of a generic manufacturer’s declaratory judgment action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

    • Defeated a $530 million claim of patent infringement of a competitor's recombinant DNA vector patent, obtaining for a biopharma innovator a judgment of noninfringement, the dismissal with prejudice of all claims and discovery sanctions against the patent owner.

    • Obtained discovery in a Section 1782 proceeding for a pharmaceutical innovator, resulting in the invalidation of an antibody glycosylation patent in the United Kingdom.

    • Represented an innovator company in one of the first cases under the legislation for biosimilars (BPCIA) and the first involving an antibody product.

    • Obtained summary judgment of noninfringement based on a series of antibody tests in a case concerning a drug’s mechanism of action.

    • Successfully represented a biotech company in a declaratory judgment action concerning point-of-care diagnostics.

    • Successfully represented a biotech company in a patent infringement action involving analysis of PCR amplified sequences.

    • Successfully defended a major pharmaceutical company in a lawsuit arising from a licensing dispute challenging the validity of biotech patents concerning the cotransformation of eukaryotic cells.

    • In a case involving patents to surgical devices, obtained summary judgment of noninfringement and exclusion of two experts under Daubert, as well as an award of attorneys’ fees.

    • On appeal to the Federal Circuit, obtained reversal of a judgment of nonobviousness in a high-stakes case involving drug-eluting coatings.

    • On appeal to the Federal Circuit, obtained dismissal of a $593 million judgment in a case involving coronary stents.

    • Obtained reversal of a judgment that two related medical device patents were procured by inequitable conduct.

    • Successfully represented a biopharma innovator in an inter partes review (IPR) of an expression vector patent, securing the dismissal with prejudice of the parallel district court litigation.

    • On appeal to the Federal Circuit, obtained reversal of an unpatentability determination for a claim protecting the therapeutic use of a recombinant protein.

    • Obtained a final written decision rejecting a generic manufacturer’s challenge to a patent protecting our client’s blockbuster injectable product. 

    • Obtained the denial of a generic manufacturer’s petition for IPR of a patent protecting our client’s long-acting antipsychotic treatment.

    • Obtained the denial of a generic manufacturer’s petition for IPR of a patent covering a crystal polymorph of a blockbuster drug.

    • In a patent license dispute concerning the use of a recombinant protein as an enzyme replacement therapy, obtained one of the largest settlement awards over the life of a contract.

    • In a patent license dispute involving a blockbuster biotech product, obtained dismissal of plaintiff’s claims and an award of attorneys’ fees.

    • Successfully represented a medical device company in a license dispute involving patents to the use of an antiproliferative drug.

    • Successfully represented an orthopedic company in a license dispute involving patents to the use of biodegradable drug-containing coatings.

    • Counseled clients on a wide range of intellectual property matters, drafted validity and infringement and freedom-to-operate opinions for biotech and pharmaceutical clients, and negotiated and drafted settlement and license agreements.

    • Developed the strategies and managed worldwide prosecution for patent applications and patents concerning the therapeutic use of a recombinant protein, including oppositions and appeals.

    Credentials

    Education

    • J.D., magna cum laude, Fordham University School of Law, 2003
      • Order of the Coif
    • Ph.D., Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998
      • National Science Foundation Fellow
    • B.A., Biological Sciences, University of Chicago, 1992
      • Phi Beta Kappa

    Bar Admissions

    • New York, 2004
    • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

    Court Admissions

    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • U.S.C.A., Federal Circuit
    • U.S.D.C., Eastern District of New York
    • U.S.D.C., Southern District of New York
    • U.S. Court of International Trade

    Professional Affiliations

    • American Chemical Society
    • American Intellectual Property Law Association, Amicus and Biotechnology Committee
    • New York Intellectual Property Law Association, Board Member, Board Liaison for Amicus Briefs Committee, Co-Chair of Amicus Briefs Committee (2015 – 2017, 2020-)
    • Intellectual Property Owners Association, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Issues Committee

    Languages

    • Russian
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