Nick George's practice focuses on patent issues relevant to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields. He has extensive experience in the strategic development, management, and prosecution of patent portfolios involving a wide range of technologies, with a particular emphasis on biologics and molecular diagnostics. Nick also advises clients regarding patentability, validity, infringement, and freedom-to-operate issues and performs due diligence evaluations of patent portfolios for possible investment, licensing, or acquisition.
Nick has developed patent strategies involving therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies; peptide therapeutics; stem cells; antisense therapeutics; nutraceuticals; nucleic acid-, antibody-, and cell-based molecular diagnostics; biopolymers; and needleless drug delivery systems. More specifically, he has developed patent strategies for Fuzeon® (enfuvirtide, an HIV therapeutic peptide co-marketed by Hoffmann-La Roche and Trimeris (now Synageva)); Fabrazyme® (agalsidase beta, an enzyme replacement therapeutic for the treatment of Fabry disease marketed by Genzyme); Syvek®, Marine Polymer Technologies' biopolymeric patch for rapid control of bleeding; Celgene Cellular Therapeutics' stem cell therapeutics; cardiovascular and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) therapeutics for Cedars-Sinai, now exclusively licensed; Kirin's LIGHT therapeutic antibodies, successfully licensed to Sanofi; and Kolltan Pharmaceuticals' anti-receptor tyrosine kinase antibody drugs. He also has developed patent strategies for Monogram Biosciences' (now LabCorp's) Phenosense™, GeneSeq™, and Replication Capacity™, individualized medicine products, and its companion diagnostic, Trofile™, as well as Bio-Rad's Bioplex™ 2200 instrumentation for multianalyte detection.
Nick holds a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley (1990). Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, he joined the biotechnology group of Pennie & Edmonds LLP in 1992 as part of that firm's law clerk program, during which time he also attended the evening program of Fordham University Law School.
