Marc Martens

Partner, Co-Head of the International Life Sciences and Healthcare Group at Bird & Bird

Speaker

As co-head of our International Life Sciences & Healthcare group and head of Bird & Bird's Regulatory, Public & Administrative Law group in Brussels, I provide cutting edge strategic and regulatory advice to our life sciences clients and represent them in litigation.

I offer both contentious and non-contentious strategic advice to Belgian and international pharma, biotech and medical devices companies, public bodies and national and European industry associations facing complex regulatory frameworks.

My areas of expertise covers issues relating to life-cycle management, clinical trials and data, data exclusivity, marketing, price and reimbursement authorisations, and e-health together with data protection, distribution and advertising issues. I provide advice to biotech companies on issues regarding Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products as well as the legal and bioethical issues relating to research and use of human cells and tissues. I regularly represent our clients before the nationals jurisdictions as well as before the European Court.

My public and administrative law expertise covers the full range of sub practices in public procurement and related litigation, environmental law, REACH, RoHS, WEES and other Belgian and EU compliance issues.

I hold a law degree from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), where I worked for four years as a research assistant, and a degree in public and administrative law from the University of Brussels. Before joining Bird & Bird, I was an expert adviser to the Vice-Prime Minister of Belgium for 3 years.

I speak and publish on life sciences regulatory topics and teach an introduction to Biotech Law at the VUB. I'm also on the board of the Belgian Biotech organisation BIO.BE.