Bristows boosts life sciences practice

Prior to his move to Bristows, Denoon was a partner at corporate boutique Marriott Harrison where he spent 18 months working in the life sciences and intellectual property department. Denoon’s move to Marriott Harrison followed working with the firm on a number of cases as co-counsel during his time as partner at life sciences boutique Denoon Legal. Denoon was also previously partner at life-sciences boutique Lawford Davies Denoon, and before that a senior associate at Clifford Chance.

“There is a small ecosystem in regulatory life sciences, and the move to Bristows presents an opportunity to specialise further,” said Denoon. His practice at Marriott Harrison was broader, encompassing patent litigation and IP.

Denoon brings to Bristows a variety of clients in the medical development and pharmaceutical sectors. From multinational corporations to emerging medical technology companies, clients include historical German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, wearable insulin pump manufacturer Cellnovo, drug development consultancy Certara and drug delivery system Renishaw. The latter is the first company to develop a system that navigates drugs directly into the brain.

In-house expertise

Before his role at Clifford Chance, Denoon worked in-house for industry association Biotech Australia. He joins another recent hire at Bristows, Xisca Borrás, who joined in October 2018 from Pfizer. As well as Denoon and Borrás, there have been three further hires in Bristows’ Life Sciences Regulatory Practice with senior associate Michaela Herron, and associates Eleanor Denny and Zac Fargher.

Alex Denoon

A final addition is Julian Hitchcock, who has joined the firm’s Life Sciences Regulatory Practice as of counsel. Moving with Denoon from Marriott Harrison, the addition of Hitchcock, whose expertise lies in cell and gene technology, complements a team already strong in pharmaceuticals and biological expertise.

Joint managing partner at Bristows, Marek Petecki, commented, “Bristows is one of the few life-sciences focused firms in Europe to have a dedicated team of regulatory experts. We are thrilled to welcome Alex and Julian to the team – they are both outstanding experts in their field, as well as being trusted by clients to deliver pragmatic advice in what can be a very difficult area of law to navigate.”

Petecki emphasised that Bristows’ technological focus creates an opportunity to develop the firm’s life sciences practice still further. Deeper intersection between healthcare and technology will see Bristows further focus its efforts on emerging issues such as digital health and artificial intelligence, he said.