Paul A. Calvo, Ph.D., is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group. Paul advises a diverse group of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, with a particular focus on counseling European life sciences clients as they navigate U.S. intellectual property concerns.  He works closely with innovators on global patent portfolio strategy, licensing, patent validity, infringement, and design-around strategies. Paul has a particular focus on technologies that include large molecule therapies, such as therapeutic antibodies, chimeric antigen receptors, and polypeptide therapeutics, antibody drug conjugates, genomics applications, and medical devices. 

Paul’s practice spans U.S. and international patent procurement and enforcement matters (particularly patent prosecution and oppositions), FDA/ANDA matters, technology transfer, and due diligence investigations as well as invalidity, noninfringement, freedom-to-operate (FTO), and patentability opinions. Paul is also counsel to many start-up companies, guiding them through early-stage portfolio development, strategic partnerships with multinational pharmaceutical companies, and SEC filings on their way to becoming publicly traded entities. 

Additionally, Paul has extensive experience providing diligence support for both venture-backed start-ups and their investors as companies progress through seed to growth financings. He provides assistance with identifying and remedying ownership issues, prosecution strategy and scope alignment, FTO and competitive landscape, and diligence packaging that makes it easy to pressure-test risk without encumbering a potential deal. From the company side, Paul assists management teams build portfolios that track scientific and commercial milestones. 

Prior to joining Sterne Kessler, Paul gained technical expertise in the areas of therapeutic antibodies, biotherapeutics, vaccines, cellular immunology, and cell and molecular biology during his graduate studies and post-doctoral fellowships at The University of Pennsylvania and National Institutes of Health. 

Paul earned his B.S. in biology from the University of Scranton, his Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the Medical College of Pennsylvania – Hahnemann University, and his J.D. from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. 

Paul is fluent in Italian.