Clients Rely on Aly and Patel as Strategic, Must-Have Advisers in Bringing Generic Drugs to Market

As seasoned first-chair lawyers, Imron and Sal collaborate with each other and across Schiff Hardin’s intellectual property team toward seamlessly achieving clients’ desired outcomes.

Clients appreciate the duo’s strategic approach, innovative take on generating arguments, aggressive courtroom demeanor, and deep understanding of the appropriate intersection between the pharmaceutical industry’s complex scientific language and in-depth, age-old patent principles.

According to Ali Ahmed, counsel for global health care company Fresenius Kabi, Imron’s strategic counsel on “bet the company kind of cases” has been a huge factor in the company’s success.

“His aggressiveness and his ability to think outside the box to form a unique strategy is incredible,” Ahmed said. “Imron brings value to every matter.”

Ahmed also credits Imron’s success on behalf of the company to his unique way of thinking:

“He will come up with something that others may not have thought about. This allows us to gain leverage because often, several companies will sue to void a patent at the same time, and Aly’s thinking allows us to differentiate ourselves from everyone else. He will have some unique suggestion of a way to approach a case that makes the other side scratch their heads and ultimately call me to ask what they have to do to get rid of us.”

This unique way of thinking, hard work, and dedication no doubt contributed to Imron and the team securing a rare preliminary injunction in New Jersey federal court that enabled Fresenius to retain its market share for a patented thyroid treatment formulation.

Other clients are similarly passionate in describing Sal’s legal influence, such as Senior Attorney Uttam Dubal of HCL America, a division of a multinational IT services company based in India:

“He knows his stuff like few other people do,” Dubal said. “You know, other lawyers can read cases and mount arguments, but Sal really gets it at a high level. He is a trusted adviser, and he will give you an honest opinion. He has no agenda. He sees the big picture, and he knows how to beat the other side.”

Rekha Hanu, executive director and chief IP counsel of Akorn Pharmaceuticals, further confirmed this assessment:

“Sal is a great leader of a well-rounded team that works very well together,” she said. “He has come through for us on some very difficult situations. But he is also a good citizen and supports diversity and women in law. I have nothing but good things to say about him.”

Imron and Sal have built Schiff’s Hatch-Waxman and Biosimilars Practice Group into one of the firm’s premier practice areas. Together, the team represents more than four of the world’s leading generic pharmaceutical manufacturers.

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