Rūta Karpičiūtė
Ellex Valiunas, Vilnius
ruta.karpiciute@ellex.legal

From 11–13 June, leading legal experts in life sciences and healthcare convened at the Ritz-Carlton, Boston, for the 11th Annual IBA World Life Sciences Conference. The event, co-hosted by the IBA Intellectual Property and Healthcare and Life Sciences Law Committees, brought together regulators, corporate counsel, private practitioners and academics to address the most pressing developments at the intersection of law, innovation and global health.

Key themes and panel highlights

• Gene therapy and personalised medicine: cutting-edge approaches reshaping patient-specific treatment strategies drove much of the discussion.
• Patent and competition interplay: a key case study focused on the Teva Copaxone outcome, exploring strategic patent filings amid competition law scrutiny.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) in life sciences: panels and roundtables tackled the regulation of generative AI (GenAI), digital health solutions and AI’s role in courtroom proceedings.
• Health data privacy: frequent updates from speakers traced the evolving global landscape in terms of patient data protection.
• Life sciences M&A and strategic collaborations: leading voices dissected deal-making trends, investment shifts and cost-efficiency driven partnerships.
• Supply chain resilience: responses to medical device and drug shortages were explored via cross-border regulatory, contractual and liability lenses.
• Counterfeit pharmaceuticals: a global alert on counterfeit threats was assessed to unveil collaborative and technological enforcement strategies.
• Compliance and anticorruption: discussions focused on building robust frameworks to navigate ethical and regulatory challenges.
• Medical device innovation: 3D printing, telemedicine and advances in digital therapeutics were also key topics.

Each session focused on practical regulatory, intellectual property (IP) and compliance strategies in an increasingly innovation-driven and globally connected healthcare market.

While originally attending only as a delegate and in a networking capacity, I had the honour of stepping in as a panellist during the session titled: ‘Combatting Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals: Legal and Regulatory Strategies Across Borders’. The panel, moderated by Jason J Jardine from Knobbe Martens and Renata Fialho de Oliveira from Veirano, included key speakers from industry including John D Ryan Lussich from Customswatch and Craig R Tucker from Eli Lilly and Company. Our discussion examined cross-border enforcement challenges and customs cooperation, the legal tools available under international intellectual property frameworks, national regulatory gaps exploited by counterfeiters and the importance of industry collaboration with regulators.

Stepping in on short notice was both a professional challenge and a rewarding experience. The panel underscored the urgency of coordinated legal frameworks to address the public health risks posed by counterfeit products, a topic of increasing relevance for both developed and emerging markets.

Takeaway

Boston 2025 reaffirmed the IBA’s role as a global hub for strategic legal thinking in the life sciences sector. The conference demonstrated the dynamic interplay between innovation and regulation in life sciences. For all the stakeholders engaged in global policy, clinical regulation and industry partnerships, the insights gathered, from managing shortages to deploying AI ethically, are highly actionable.