20 June 2023
Mövenpick Hotel Basel

Panel

A first-rate team of experts will guide you through the agenda. 

Oliver M. Brupbacher

Chair
Dr. iur., LL.M., Partner
Bär & Karrer

Oliver Brupbacher advises and represents national and multinational clients, in particular from the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors, in the areas of dispute resolution, regulatory, data and digital. He specialises in corporate investigations, litigation and arbitration, large-scale cross-border proceedings and mutual legal assistance, as well as high-profile regulatory matters, data protection and information governance. He also assists his clients in crisis management and cybersecurity. As a former senior litigation counsel, global product lawyer and head of global discovery at Novartis, Oliver combines deep expertise in his areas of practice with an intimate understanding of the industry and of clients’ needs at all organisational levels, in both a domestic and international context. Clients often turn to Oliver for their most complex and contentious challenges that require strategic and innovative thinking.
Claudia Götz Staehelin
Chair
Dr. iur., LL.M., Partner
Bär & Karrer
 

Claudia Götz Staehelin's practice focuses on complex investigation and litigation matters at the intersection of civil, criminal and regulatory proceedings. Claudia leads large-scale internal investigations, supports her clients in crisis management and advises them on all aspects of their compliance framework. She represents and advises her clients in domestic and cross-border litigations, in international judicial and administrative assistance matters and in internal and regulatory investigations led by Swiss and foreign authorities. One of her industry focuses is the Healthcare & Life Sciences industry, where she advises clients on pharma regulatory and all compliance matters. Based on her experience as former Head of Litigation at Novartis, Claudia regularly supports companies with multi-jurisdictional projects requiring innovative thinking. She has extensive international experience in litigation and investigation risk assessment, and in assisting clients with strategic decision-making.

Claudia is listed by Chambers & Partners and by Legal 500 as one of Switzerland's leading business lawyers in the areas of Healthcare and Life Sciences as well as Regulatory, Investigations and Compliance. Legal 500 2023 lists her as “Leading Individual” for Regulatory, Compliance & Investigation and for Healthcare & Life Sciences.

 

Djamila Batache

MLaw, Advocate, Associate
Bär & Karrer

Djamila Batache is an Associate at Bär & Karrer. Her practice focuses on advising and representing clients in the health care and life science sector in the areas of contract law, regulation and (product) liability law.

As the author of a doctoral thesis on liability law implications arising from the use of artificially intelligent medical devices, she has, in addition to a strong technical understanding, proven expertise in the field of liability and healthcare law.

Alejandro Bes

PhD Law, Global Head Legal – Customer Engagement, Platforms and Data
Novartis

Alejandro Bes is Head Legal – Customer Engagement, Platforms and Data for Novartis in Basel. He is in charge of the legal implementation of the global Customer Engagement, Platforms and Data Legal strategy for Novartis Pharma. His experience at Novartis includes dealing with large tech companies, start ups and other pharma companies. Alejandro joined Novartis in 2018 and previously was in in charge of legal and regulatory affairs at Apple for Southern Europe, based in Milan. Prior to Apple he was an associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Madrid and Barcelona.

He oversees a wide range of legal topics, navigating the intersection of the tech and the pharma industries, with a focus on AI, new technologies and big data. He is experienced in complex regulatory and multijurisdictional legal issues.

Alejandro is Spanish, his academic background is in Spain (University of Zaragoza) and US (George Mason University), with postgraduate studies in the UK (King’s College) and Italy (Bocconi University). In the past he has been honored as a leading lawyer in his practice, including in Legal 500’s Top GCs in Italy and has participated as invited lecturer in Bocconi University (Milan) on topics regarding the challenges presented by new technologies. He is also an invited lecturer at the Europa Institute-University of Zurich.

Kirsten Broeckers

MLaw, MBLT, Head Legal & Compliance EMEA
Novartis Gene Therapies (AveXis)

Francine Brogyányi

LLM, Managing Partner & Head of Health and Life Science Industry Group
Dorda

Francine Brogyányi joined DORDA in 2001 and heads DORDA's Health & Life Sciences group since 2012. She was appointed managing partner of DORDA in 2019. Francine is an expert in all areas of life sciences, in particular pharmaceutical and medical device law. She advises national and international companies throughout the entire life cycle of products. Francine is one of the leading European lawyers in the field of life sciences and won the LMG Life Science Award Europe 2020 and together with the Health & Life Science Group received the LMG Central Europe firm of the year in 2021. Before joining DORDA, she gained experience at a leading oil and gas company in Sydney, where she was born and grew up. She then joined the legal department of a multinational group in Austria. Francine is the author of numerous publications on pharmaceutical law and lectures at the Pharmig Academy and the University of Vienna.

Elena Chounta

LL.M., Head of Group Investigations
Holcim

Elena Chounta is Head of Group Investigations for Holcim in Zug, since January 2023. She is responsible for the governance and the implementation of the internal investigation process at Holcim, including SpeakUp program, investigations, and remediation. Prior to Holcim, she worked for 6 years at Novartis in Basel, as an Investigator, SpeaUp office Manager and then as Head of Novartis Security Intelligence function. Prior to Novartis, she worked at Basel Institute on Governance, as Senior Asset Recovery Specialist, advising developing countries on anti-corruption and anti-money laundering investigations and recovery of stolen assets.

Elena started her professional career as a lawyer in Greece, then she worked as a legal advisor on securities law matters at the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission and after that she was Head of Operational Analysis department at the Hellenic Financial Intelligence Unit, investigating money laundering offences.

Elena has a law degree from the University of Athens, an LLM from Georgetown University (US) and she is also a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Beatriz Cocina Arrieta
Counsel
Uría Menéndes
 

Beatriz Cocina is a lawyer in the Healthcare Life Sciences Practice Area of Uría Menéndez. She joined the firm in 2001 and became a counsel in January 2013.

Beatriz regularly advises national and multinational companies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors on all contractual, commercial and regulatory aspects of their businesses. She is particularly experienced in regulatory, commercial, and transactional topics. Some of the fields she is active at are (i) pricing, reimbursement, and market access of medicines and medical devices; (ii) marketing strategies, promotion and discount policies, including promotional disputes; and (iii) commercial agreements (licensing, manufacturing, co-marketing, distribution and similar deals).. She is regularly involved in M&A transactions, strategic alliances and joint ventures in the healthcare and life sciences sector. She has also frequently led the design and review of compliance programmes and internal investigations in multinational groups.

Beatriz is regarded as a leading lawyer in healthcare and life sciences by the main international legal directories, such as Chambers Europe, Best Lawyers and The Legal 500.

Jennifer Cohn

MD, MPH, Director
Global Access at Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP)

Dr. Jennifer Cohn is an infectious disease physician with a focus on improving access to and uptake of effective health products and models of care in low- and middle-income countries. She currently serves as the Director, Global Access for the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), and is a clinical associate professor of Infectious Diseases and Scholar at the Center for Global Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Before joining GARDP, Jennifer served as Senior Vice President for cardiovascular health at Resolve to Save Lives, Senior Director of Innovation at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and as the Medical Coordinator for the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Access Campaign. Jennifer has served on international advisory groups for TB, HIV, non-communicable diseases and viral hepatitis. She has published over 80 papers in peer-reviewed medical journals. Jennifer received her MD from University of Pennsylvania, is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and earned her Masters in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

 

Andrea Ferrari

LL.M, LL.M International Trade Law, Head of Global Legal Functions
Sandoz

Andrea is an Italian qualified lawyer with 20+ year experience in the life-science, corporate and commercial areas. He is currently Head of the Global Legal Team at Sandoz, a Novartis Division, where he focuses on supporting the Sandoz Global Business Units and the transactional area.

Andrea spent the first part of his career in private practice, as member of the Corporate M&A teams at DLA Piper and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer respectively. In London he also worked in Goldman Sachs’ Legal department, supporting the Private Equity team.

Andrea moved to in-house roles in 2011, joining Takeda and holding throughout the years various functional and regional roles. His most recent position before moving to Sandoz was General Counsel for Europe and Canada

Andrea is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, where he completed his executive education in Strategy, Finance and Leadership.

Florence Jacobs

MLaw, Advocate, Senior Director, Legal - Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Moderna

Florence is a Belgian qualified lawyer with 20 years of experience. Currently Senior Director at Moderna, Florence focuses on CMC matters, in particular in the realm of product manufacturing.   

Prior to her roles as an in-house lawyer in life-science technical operations, Florence started her career in private practice as a member of the Brussels Bar (Dutch language section) and ran the contracting activities in support of the scientific operations at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva.

Florence studied Law at the University of Namur (FUNDP) and Catholic University of Leuven (KUL).

Thomas Janssens

Partner, Brussels, Antitrust and Regulatory
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Thomas Janssens heads the Freshfields global antitrust, competition and trade practice group – a role he combines with his dynamic and broad client practice. Based in Brussels, he advises on EU and international antitrust law, covering transactional and conduct matters as well as related litigation. Clients turn to Thomas for complex EU and international mandates, especially those requiring strategic management of cross-border challenges and parallel proceedings before several authorities. He brings international experience and perspective across all areas of antitrust risk and compliance.

Thomas has advised life sciences and pharmaceutical clients on the merger control aspects of a number of high profile transactions, including Boehringer Ingelheim on its asset swap with Sanofi, Novartis on its joint venture with GSK and the sale of its animal health division to Eli Lilly, Perrigo on its acquisition of Omega Pharma, and Solvay on the sale of its Pharmaceuticals Group to Abbott Laboratories.

Thomas was educated at the University of Leuven (Belgium) and Columbia Law School (US). He is a regular commentator on topics of EU antitrust law and an active member of the International Bar Association (IBA), where he recently completed a three-year term as Co-Chair of the Antitrust Section.

Susan Jones
Partner
Gilbert + Tobin
 
Susan is a Partner in Gilbert + Tobin’s Competition + Regulation group.
She specialises in competition law with particular expertise advising clients in relation to mergers and acquisitions, collaborations, IP licensing agreements, manufacturing and distribution arrangements and investigations of cartel conduct and concerted practices. 
Susan has extensive experience with multijurisdictional matters and in pharmaceuticals and healthcare.  Her previous role was the head of the global antitrust practice at Swiss healthcare company Novartis.  There she led the merger clearance process for Novartis’s acquisition of eye care company Alcon and for Novartis’s series of high-profile transformational deals with GSK and Lilly (GCR Awards 2015 Matter of the Year).
She is the co-author for the Australian chapter for Lexology/Getting the Deal Through’s “Digital Health 2021” publication and authored a Pharmaceuticals chapter for GCR’s Asia-Pacific Antitrust Review 2021.  
Susan was profiled in the Global Competition Review’s Corporate Counsel 2019 quadrennial list of the top inhouse antitrust lawyers in the world.  She is also member of the Mergers Working Group of the International Bar Association’s Antitrust Section, the editorial board of the Global Competition Review and is regularly sought out to present at leading global competition conferences.
Francisco Marti

LL.M., Attorney, Head Legal Europe
Sanofi

Francisco (Paco) Marti is a senior leader in the Health Care Industry with more than 20 years of experience in private practice and In-house legal departments.

He studied Law in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and obtained an LL.M. in the Instituto de Empresa (IE, Spain) and LL.M. in McGeorge School of Law (University of the Pacific, California). He is also a member of the Madrid, New York, and New Jersey Bar Associations.

Paco is the Head Legal Europe at Sanofi where he leads a team of legal professionals responsible for supporting the Sanofi business operations (Specialty Care, General Medicines and Vaccines) in the European markets. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at Novartis working in various business units (Pharma, Oncology and Cell & Gene) in Switzerland and the United Sates, supporting different areas: Commercial, Manufacturing & Supply, Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility, Litigation, Transactions, Regional and Global Roles.

Ron Peleg

LL.B., Partner
Meitar

Ron Peleg is a partner at Meitar Law Offices in Israel. Ron regularly defends multinational companies in complex litigation, particularly product liability cases and class actions. Ron also specializes in the field of pharmaceutical law. Ron was involved in the most notable global pharma product liability cases (Vioxx, Avandia, Crestor, Yasmin and more) defending industry leaders such as Merck, GSK, Bayer, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and more. Ron is consistently selected as a leading practitioner by Who's who legal Product Liability Defence, Life Science and Legal 500. Ron is the former Associate Editor of the “Tel Aviv University Law Review”.

Olivier Schaller

Dr. iur., Vice-Director, Services
WEKO

Studies in law at the Universities of Fribourg (Dr.iur.), Freiburg-im-Breisgau (LL.M.) and San Diego (CA/USA). He worked as a senior research officer at the Secretariat of the COMCO and then as head of the Market Control Section at the Money Laundering Control Authority. Since 1 February 2003 Vice-Director of the Secretariat of the COMCO.

Jörg Schickert
Dr. iur., Attorney, Partner
Hogan Lovells
 
Jörg Schickert has a long-standing experience in dealing with German and European pharmaceutical and devices law. He takes his industry knowledge from over 20 years' experience in working hand-in-hand with many major and reputed life sciences companies. He has a deep knowledge across all relevant legal areas of the day-to-day business of selling pharmaceutical products and devices or offering health solutions. This allows him to provide overall solutions for issues and projects which have implications in very different legal disciplines, such as regulatory, reimbursement, commercial, and compliance. He advises on reimbursement strategies, clinical trials, the launch and marketing of new products, dealing with health care professionals, anti-corruption/transparency, product safety and vigilance and related agreements and contracts. He also assists Hogan Lovells corporate teams in transactions pertaining to the life science industry. Jörg Schickert holds the admission to the bar in Germany.

 

Laura Shores

JD, University of Chicago Law School, Partner
Arnold & Porter

Laura Shores is an antitrust trial lawyer with more than 30 years of experience representing clients in civil and criminal antitrust matters.

Ms. Shores has litigated and tried a number of significant antitrust actions in cases brought by federal agencies and civil plaintiffs. While Ms. Shores has represented clients in a variety of industries, she has particularly deep experience in defending clients in antitrust class actions in the life sciences sector. In a landmark case brought by the Federal Trade Commission against Schering-Plough Corporation challenging its settlement of patent litigation with manufacturers of generic drugs, Ms. Shores prevailed after a two-month administrative hearing before the FTC in the first case challenging a settlement of patent litigation between brand and generic pharmaceutical cases.

Ms. Shores has also defended clients in other complex civil litigation matters in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings.

Ms. Shores' practice also focuses on white-collar defense and internal investigations. She has represented corporations and individuals in government investigations and prosecutions across a broad range of substantive areas, including antitrust, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering, securities fraud, and procurement fraud. She has also represented individuals in Independent Counsel and Congressional investigations.

Eric Stupp

lic. iur., LL.M., Partner
Bär & Karrer

Eric Stupp heads Bär & Karrer's financial services department and co-heads the internal investigation and cross-border proceedings team. He is based in Zurich and has been a partner since 2000.

His practice focuses on advising banks, insurance companies, asset managers and other financial intermediaries on regulatory matters, enforcement proceedings and on M&A transactions. He is also co-head of the fintech practice group of the firm and advises clients in connection with large-scale Blockchain projects.

In recent years, he has regularly advised financial institutions and regulatory bodies in connection with internal investigations on cross-border issues. In particular, he has assisted clients in numerous proceedings initiated by the US Department of Justice, the New York Department of Financial Services and other US and European authorities.

Eric Stupp is a regular speaker at expert conferences addressing these matters. He was a member of Bär & Karrer's management committee for eight years. He is the vice chairman of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs Bank Ltd., Zurich and a member of the boards of other financial and non-profit institutions. He is further a member of the specialist committee Legal and Compliance of the Swiss Asset Management Association as well as a member of the Steering Committee of the Forum of Financial Institutions Enforcement, USA.

Chambers Global ranks Eric Stupp as Tier 1 lawyer in banking & finance. He is also ranked as one of the leading banking lawyers in Switzerland by IFLR1000 (since 2016) and Who's Who Legal (Since 2015). Eric Stupp is listed as a leading lawyer in The Legal 500 in the category Hall of Fame. In 2018, the Weizmann Institute of Science awarded Eric Stupp the Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa for his professional achievements and his support of scientific research carried out in the Institute.