Overview
Katya Ascher focuses her practice on commercial contracts and patent law issues in litigation and transactional matters across technology sectors. She regularly negotiates every type of agreement associated with technology transfer, research and development, services, manufacturing and distribution. She has over a decade of experience counseling clients in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. Her clients include mid-sized companies and start-ups, operating in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, nutraceutical and engineering fields.
Katya Ascher spent the first five years of her career as an associate in one of the top New York intellectual property boutiques where she litigated cases in district court and the International Trade Commission and advised clients on patent validity and infringement. She subsequently worked as the intellectual property counsel in a French research foundation and as a solicitor in London. Before studying law, Katya gained technical experience as an intern in a genomic research laboratory of a major biotechnology company.
Results
- Advised Dynacure on an agreement granting Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. the exclusive option to acquire development and commercial rights in Japan to develop and commercialize DYN101, an investigational antisense oligonucleotide product candidate for treatment of Myotubular and Centronuclear Myopathies
- Advised Corlieve Therapeutics on its sale to uniQure, with its lead program, a gene therapy approach to treat Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
- Advised Pierre Fabre on its license to ValenzaBio on an anti-IGF-1R antibody for the development of a novel treatment in Thyroid Eye Disease
- Advised Ardian Growth and BNP Paribas Development on their investment into Proteor, a manufacturer and distributor of prosthetics and orthotics
- Advised Vetoquinol on the intellectual property aspects of an acquisition of the European and UK rights to the Profender and Drontal product families from Elanco for a total price of $140 million
- Advised Igyxos in negotiating a service agreement with Selexis to develop Igyxos first in class monoclonal drug candidate for the treatment of human infertility
- Advised PDC*line Pharma in negotiating an exclusive license and option agreement with LG Chem Life Sciences Company to develop and commercialize the company’s drug candidate
- Advised a major UK university on intellectual property aspects of a US$100 million investment by a pharmaceutics company into an early stage therapeutics company*
- Drafted and negotiated research and development, option, and exclusive license agreements between a spin-out company and university in the field of CAR-T therapy*
- Analyzed EPO and USPTO file histories and prior art in order to develop invalidity arguments in the context of patent infringement litigation*
*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott
Recognitions
- The Best Lawyers in France, “Ones to Watch” in Biotechnology & Life Sciences, 2024
- Legal 500 EMEA, Recommended Lawyer, 2022
Credentials
Education
University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Master 2 Industrial Property, 2012
University of North Carolina School of Law, JD, with honors, 2005
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA, Biology, with distinction, 2002
Admissions
England and Wales (Nonpracticing Solicitor)
New York
Paris
Languages
English
French
Russian
