Peter Cozens

Biography

Peter Cozens has worked for more than 27 years in the pharmaceutical industry. He is a scientifically-qualified commercial development professional with broad international experience in both the biotechnology and conventional pharmaceutical sectors of the industry. Experienced in all facets of identifying, negotiating and managing third party agreements in all major territories to facilitate strategic business expansion. Additional responsibility in managing Patents and Trademark functions, including overseeing multinational patent litigation, many cases of which gave rise to seminal patent law, has provided valuable experience in contractual and intellectual property law. Experience also includes management of an export function responsible for sales outside Europe and the US and responsibility for strategic marketing/business information. A molecular geneticist by training on completion of his PhD, in 1978 Peter joined Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) in Basel, Switzerland as a research scientist. In 1981 he moved to Wellcome Biotechnology Ltd. to work as a senior scientist in Molecular Biology and became leader of Wellcome’s cytokine programme. From 1987 to 1991, whilst still at Wellcome, he worked with Group Patents and Agreements on both patent litigation and licensing activities. In 1991 he joined Medeva PLC where he became Executive Vice President, Business Development and Intellectual Property and a member of Medeva’s Executive Management Committee. Peter’s major achievement during this period was the building of Medeva’s development pipeline. He was responsible for a series of in-licensing and out-licensing deals and acquisitions including partnerships with Janssen, Connetics Corporation, Targeted Genetics, Peptide Therapeutics, SmithKline Beecham, ML Labs, Aviron, Mayo Medical Ventures, Eurand and Chiroscience. Peter also piloted the Biogen v. Medeva patent case through several courts culminating in the landmark House of Lords decision on the scope of patent claims. He is Chairman of the Intellectual Property Advisory Committee of the UK BioIndustry Association and a Non-Executive Director of Eden BioPharma Limited.

Research Interest

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