With a Ph.D. in chemistry, it was natural for Paul H. Ginsburg ’76 to enter patent law. Mr. Ginsburg has spent much of his career in the pharmaceutical industry, first at Schering-Plough, then at Merck & Co., and, since 1987, at Pfizer Inc., where he is assistant general counsel, overseeing a group of 18 lawyers.
“The biggest challenge the industry faces is to keep research-based inventions coming,” he says. “We’re like Alice in Wonderland. You have to work harder and harder just to stay where you are.”
Pressure from the investment community, an increasingly lengthy FDA approval process, and the high cost of medical research—to the tune of half a billion dollars for a single product—add to the difficulties of bringing medical advances to the market.
“Maintaining good IP protection is essential for us,” Mr. Ginsburg adds. “Without patent protection, you can’t afford to do research.”
That protection now extends to areas no one dreamed possible a few generations ago. Mr. Ginsburg cites the landmark 1980 U.S. Supreme Court case Diamond v. Chakrabarty, which ruled that microorganisms could be patented, as responsible for spawning the biotechnology industry. “That case illustrates how patents can be so important to the development of technology,” he adds.
