Cynthia L. Kanik, Ph.D., is of counsel to Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in the Firm’s Boston office. Her areas of law include intellectual property and life sciences for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with a focus on molecular genetics, oncology, immunology, peptide chemistry, and small molecules.

Dr. Kanik has more than 15 years of experience as a patent attorney and patent agent. She assists clients with all aspects of patent preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications, patent portfolio management, infringement and validity opinions, freedom to operate evaluations, due diligence evaluations, and licensing.

Her notable experience includes:

• Developing and implementing intellectual property strategies to maximize worldwide protection of new drugs for a pharmaceutical company and served as patent counsel from the company’s start-up through multiple rounds of financing.
• Serving as U.S. patent counsel to a European life sciences company and represented the company through due diligence and public offering.
• Serving as U.S. counsel to a European life sciences company through due diligence and acquisition.
• Providing evaluations of intellectual property to universities and venture capital companies in connection with partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, and licensing of intellectual property assets.

Dr. Kanik’s prior work experience includes both leading research institutions and international pharmaceutical companies. She has worked as a patent attorney for both Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Her doctoral and post-doctoral research was conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute and Harvard University and focused on the molecular genetics of cell-cycle control.

She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, the American Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Boston Patent Law Association, and the Women’s Bar Association. Dr. Kanik is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Dr. Kanik has given a number of presentations, including “The Role of Written Description in IP Due Diligence,” American Conference Institute, Life Sciences IP Due Diligence for Buyers, New York, NY, April 2007, and “Investigating the Proposed Rules for Claim Examination,” American Conference Institute, 7th Biotech Advanced Forum, Boston, MA, November 2006. Additionally, she is the author of several research articles in Genetics, Molecular & Cellular Biology and The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

In 1998, Dr. Kanik earned her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School. She earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Cornell University in 1990. She earned her Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in Biology from S.U.N.Y. at Oswego in 1980.