Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences Lawyers
"Connecting life sciences expertise in a changing world"
In the fast-moving pharmaceuticals and life sciences sector, staying on top of legal and regulatory challenges is crucial. We work with passionate, innovative teams driving life-changing breakthroughs - helping them seize opportunities, navigate change, and challenge the status quo with confidence.
The pharmaceuticals and life sciences sector sits at the forefront of innovation, addressing critical health challenges.
To navigate this dynamic landscape, you need legal support that offers more than just advice, providing strategic insight and valuable industry networks to help your business thrive.
We add value beyond legal advice, sharing industry-leading insights and facilitating connections with specialists who help you from right across the sector. As specialists in life sciences law, we provide clear, pragmatic guidance on complex legal issues. Whether you are an innovative start-up or an established organisation, we help you navigate change, seize opportunities and drive meaningful progress that positively impacts people's lives.
With deep industry knowledge, we provide tailored legal solutions designed to help you scale and succeed. Specialising in small and medium-sized enterprises and early-stage innovators, we offer practical guidance, insights and expertise to support your growth.
Your work transforms lives, and we’re here to ensure you have the legal expertise and industry connections needed to help you drive innovation and make a lasting impact.
Our expertise
Drawing on years of experience advising on life sciences law and a network of partnerships with industry leaders, we are uniquely positioned to offer comprehensive legal support.
Specialised industry support:
As a trusted legal advisor to life sciences businesses operating at all stages in the supply chain from drug discovery to distribution and supply chain management, we support clients with a variety of different needs.
We have particular specialist expertise in the following areas:
We draft and negotiate distribution agreements for pharmaceutical and life sciences products for both suppliers and distributors, ensuring compliance with regulations and protecting our client's interests in complex supply chains.
Helping you navigate the intricacies of agreements related to CDMOs, research, and manufacturing. We appreciate the important role CDMOs play in the supply chain and understand the unique issues these businesses face.
Advising brand owners and traders in the parallel trade of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, both strategically and in disputes.
Negotiating and drafting agreements relating to clinical trials, including site agreements, laboratory services agreements and research collaborations for all stages of clinical trials (Phases I-IV).
From regulatory compliance to contractual considerations, we help you navigate the complexities, requirements and risks of developing, commercialising, and selling medical devices and health technologies, including those incorporating AI.
We offer comprehensive advice on regulatory compliance for businesses operating within the sector, including in relation to medicines, medical devices, human tissue, pre-clinical and clinical studies, manufacturing, distribution, brokering, ethical standards and NHS requirements. We can work alone or with your advisors to prepare legal opinions on critical determinations, such as legal analyses of the application of regulation to borderline products or incidences of non-compliance.
Our core legal services
These are just some of the areas where we can help. Our full-service offering extends to tax, data protection, HR, immigration, and more. Please view our service pages to view everything we can offer you.
Protect your commercial interests with expertly drafted agreements and help with negotiations, including CDMO, CRO, collaboration and material transfer agreements; through distribution, licensing and supply agreements. We ensure your contracts are clear, practical, and aligned with your business goals.
Set your business up for growth. From establishing UK entities to navigating mergers and acquisitions, investment rounds, and shareholder issues. We help ensure your business is structured for growth and success, and then help you to realise the fruits of your labours when you want to sell.
We can offer you property expertise tailored to the life sciences sector. Whether you need help with leases, property disputes, or navigating planning and construction issues, life sciences space has specialist needs, and our unique combination of property expertise and sector knowledge can help you navigating this.
Protect your most valuable assets - your intellectual property. From securing trade mark registrations to addressing infringement issues, we ensure your valuable IP assets are secure.
In the event of a dispute, our experienced litigators provide practical advice and representation in disputes, safeguarding your business interests.
AI presents exciting opportunities and new challenges. Whether you’re using AI in your business or responding to third-party use, VWV provides expert advice on data protection, confidentiality, IP concerns, and crafting agreements that address the unique considerations of AI in the sector.
Our commitment to innovation was showcased at our 2024 PING conference, ‘AI in Pharma: Threat or Opportunity?’, exploring how AI can support every stage of the pharmaceuticals from research and development through to the supply chain.
Our connections
Strong relationships drive growth. With a presence in London, Hertfordshire and the northern home counties, the West Midlands, and the South West, we are well placed to help you work with the right partners. Whether you are a startup or an established business, our expertise and network help you connect, collaborate and achieve your ambitions.
If you are a business looking to get established coming into the UK or need help with international expansion outside of the UK, we have a strong partnership with London & Partners (incorporating MedCity); and our strong network of legal advisors internationally makes your life easy if you are looking for seamless help in other countries.
We’re proud to facilitate meaningful connections between our clients and key organisations, incubators, and industry leaders, helping you build partnerships that drive growth and innovation.
Collaborations
Connecting the Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences sector
We are dedicated to fostering collaboration and sharing knowledge across the industry. Through our active involvement in key working groups, we help connect pharma players, spark innovative ideas, and address the challenges you face.
PING
PING connects businesses across the pharmaceutical journey - from early-stage R&D (such as universities and research institutes) through to finished product suppliers (originators and generics) and distributors and wholesalers (any marketing authorisation holders) and ultimately some pharmacists too. The annual PING conference brings together leading speakers to explore critical and topical sector issues, offering a relaxed environment to share insights and build connections.
Recent feedback reflects the positive impact of PING:
"It had an amazing agenda of punchy, relevant and interesting speakers. These kinds of industry events are so important. Congratulations to Paul Gershlick on event and for the opportunity to come along and the team at VWV for making the event brilliant — from start to finish." – Rondi Allan
The 2025 conference focuses on Sustainability – What Must Pharma Do Now?, featuring the Head of Medicines Net Zero from NHS England amongst an array of leading voices.
LILAC
LILAC is a supportive community designed for in-house legal advisers working in the life sciences sector. These friendly, informal meetings encourage members to share ideas, address common challenges, and explore innovative solutions. Discussions are led by members, often sparking thought-provoking insights on unexpected issues.
Feedback from members highlights the value of this collaborative approach:
"LILAC was superb, and I enjoyed my time there tremendously. Thank you for the invite." - Funke Abimbola MBE
EMIG
For over a decade, VWV has played an active role in EMIG (Ethical Medicines Industry Group), co-running the Compliance Special Interest Group and contributing to key initiatives. We have hosted and offered expert knowledge at the Digital, HR, Finance, Business Development, Sustainability and DE&I groups.
Our work highlights
Our cross-disciplinary capabilities were recently highlighted in guiding a client through the extensive regulatory and data protection requirements for research programmes. This project involved advising on Research Ethics Committee approval, Human Tissue Authority licences and valid donor consent, as well as compliant collection and storage of personal data (including health data). We have the breadth of expertise and specialist knowledge to support you in launching your valuable research projects.
Our sector knowledge and expertise, from both a commercial and legal perspective, was demonstrated in supporting our client in amending a high value distribution agreement to reflect changes to its business structure. Paul Gershlick, Head of our Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences sector, expertly guided the client through post-Windsor Framework issues and collaborated with the client's quality, finance and regulatory teams to provide prompt and commercially focused advice. Our lawyers understand how the sector operates and what issues are important for your business.
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