Stephen Reese

Clifford Chance

Myriad bright minds paved the way for the vaccine that stemmed out of the collaboration between Pfizer and BioNTech, opening up a path out of the Covid-19 emergency. One of them was Clifford Chance partner Stephen Reese, who was involved from the beginning, when the vaccine was still an idea and a hope.

Last March, the IP expert helped Pfizer draft its definitive agreement with German biotech company BioNTech around the potential vaccine’s development and distribution beyond China. Once engaged, he had to deploy a first draft in 48 hours. Normally, these processes would take months, but with the pandemic ravaging the world there was no time to waste.
Reese credits his experience of advising Pfizer on the development of a flu vaccine still in development phase as a blueprint for this titanic effort. From an IP perspective, he had to try and predict developments amid unprecedented uncertainty. There were big challenges regarding the novel technology that has been deployed in the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine.
Despite the vaccine-related workload, in May Reese found
the time to advise on IP issues as Clifford Chance took the lead for Telefónica as its UK network
O2 sealed a tie-up deal with Virgin Media.