Attorney Anna Richo serves as executive vice president and general counsel for Brussels-based pharmaceutical firm UCB. In her role, Anna Richo protects the intellectual property of the firm as it develops products to help people with serious diseases, including restless legs syndrome (RLS). RLS, or Willis-Ekbom disease, is a neurological disorder that causes uncomfortable sensations down the legs described by patients as creeping or throbbing, along with an almost uncontrollable urge to move in order to make the sensations stop. Many people suffer more restlessness at night, which can interfere with healthy, uninterrupted sleep. No one knows the exact cause of the disorder, but it seems to be connected with the way the neurotransmitter dopamine moves through a patient’s system. Genes also may play a role, and for some people, iron deficiency may be a cause. RLS is chronic and probably a lifelong disorder. It affects about 10 percent of the American adult population, with women twice as likely as men to be impacted. For some people, lifestyle interventions such as increasing iron consumption and adding regular exercise can help. Patients with more severe RLS symptoms tend to improve with dopamine agonists, opioids, anticonvulsant drugs, or hypnotic drugs.
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An accomplished legal professional with over three decades of experience, Anna Richo serves as executive vice president and general counsel at UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company based in Belgium. Recently, an article by Modern Counsel featured Anna Richo for her effectiveness in using narration as part of her approach to intellectual property (IP) litigation.
Due to the technical nature of IP cases, many attorneys choose to focus on the facts and science of a specific product rather than telling a story about its potential use and benefits. However, good storytelling has a place in IP litigation, especially IP cases in the pharmaceutical sector. Despite the directives of some law schools that tell students to rely on only logic to advocate for their clients, narration has been featured prominently in litigation for as long as attorneys have been presenting cases before judges and juries. More recently, legal writing experts, such as Bryan Garner have been urging attorneys to adopt a narrative-based communications style in the courtroom to ensure that a client's story and all aspects of a case are heard and presented effectively within the legal framework. In pharmaceutical IP litigation, effective storytelling highlights the value that a drug brings to patients. More specifically, narration can show a court the burden of a certain disease and present how a new drug or therapy will reduce that burden and address unmet patient needs. By focusing on patients and their stories, IP litigators in the pharmaceutical sector can defend true innovation through a compelling narrative to which both judges and juries can relate. |
AuthorAs of November 1, 2012, Anna Richo became Executive Vice President and General Counsel of UCB, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Archives
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