Drug Companies Reserving Seat for Patent Lawyers at Deal Table

Pharmaceutical companies intent on finding the next blockbuster drug increasingly view patent litigators as a secret weapon at the bargaining table, proving their value to an industry built on intellectual property and dealmaking.

The trend of IP litigators as strategic business advisers has grown over the past decade, as brand-name drugmakers look to them for help in determining what types of deals to strike—acquire vs. partner vs. license—in a way that best dovetails with the pharmaceutical company’s own R&D and broader business interests.

“The strengths that companies are looking for in IP lawyers is that strategic eye they bring to ...