Chris represents clients in the life sciences and medical device industries in all areas of intellectual property, with a particular emphasis in complex transactions involving intellectual property.* Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, and medical device companies benefit from his deep experience in areas including in-licensing and out-licensing, joint development agreements, CRADAs, mergers and acquisitions, sponsored research agreements, commercialization agreements, and manufacturing and supply agreements. Chris also has extensive experience handling technology transfer matters involving universities and government laboratories. In addition, Chris regularly performs technical and legal due diligence in support of venture capital investments and mergers and acquisitions. His fundraising experience includes venture capital, private equity, and debt investments.
Chris is the former General Counsel of Alba Therapeutics, and serves as outside General Counsel or outside Chief Patent Counsel to a number of small and mid-sized pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology companies. In this role Chris and his team manage many large intellectual property portfolios and have designed and executed life cycle and IP monetization plans, including several large international commercialization and IP licensing programs.
Chris has also been involved in the management and/or representation of companies in patent litigation (including ANDA litigation) and litigation involving alleged breaches of license, employment, and confidentiality agreements.
As a consultant on technical projects, Chris has worked in areas ranging from pharmaceutical discovery to medical device and diagnostic development.
Chris earned a PhD in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of Houston. During graduate school, he was a National Institutes of Health (NIH) pre-doctoral fellow in biophysics at Rice University and an NIH post-doctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Prior to graduate school, Chris worked as a board-certified medical technologist for medical laboratories in military and civilian hospitals. Chris is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches courses on entrepreneurism, medical device development and intellectual property. Chris was the former Vice President and General Counsel of Alba Therapeutics, and also served for one year as the interim Vice President of Drug Discovery Operations. Chris is the founder and former managing member of FirstStage Bioventures, LLC, and was co-founder of Seguro Surgical and EncephRx Pharmaceuticals.
