Feeling a little nostalgic about my career, which probably has a lot to do with my son starting his career journey this week.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with some of the best and most innovative life science companies. Here are five career defining moments:

  1. I was part of a trial team in 2009 defending Amgen’s patents and during this trial the inventor of Epogen told the story of how he found the gene for erythropoietin. It was just an amazing story of perseverance that brought a company from the brink to a company that has brought the world so many life changing medicines. Perseverance pays off!
  2. I was part of the defense team for one of the Phen-Fen companies in the early 2000s. Mass tort cases are tough, but we believed we had the “good” phen. This was confirmed when a Massachusetts court made new law by excluding junk science expert testimony aimed at our client. That work resulted in not only getting us out of this litigation but hundreds of other cases. Good facts can win, even in really tough situations!
  3. I worked with a Neurologist in the mid-2000s who told the story about what Amgen’s Epogen meant to his patients when it came on the market. I still remember how he described how these patients regained their lives. Epogen allowed people who were essentially home bound to work and socialize again. Stories about the impact of truly life altering medications never get old!
  4. I was at Biogen in 2016 when we received clinical trial results for Spinraza. This drug treats a terrible disease that had almost always led to death for impacted babies. The results were not just good, they were amazing. Spinraza became the first significant treatment for patients and gave families hope. I will always remember the pride people felt that day!
  5. Hearing from Al Sandrock at Biogen was always special but one day I got to talk to him about the impact of Avonex on patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Anyone who works in MS knows the incredible progress that has been made for patients since the late 2000s. This was led by Avonex (and Biogen), which made “living with MS” a reality. Like I said, war stories about the impact of life altering medicine never gets old!

These moments are why I’ve focused my career on helping companies avoid costly and timely litigation and government investigations. I do this work to have more moments like these.

Dan Curto

For more than 20 years Dan Curto has been focused on helping life sciences companies solve legal, compliance and regulatory challenges. Dan was a member of the international law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery from 1998 to 2012. As a partner at…

For more than 20 years Dan Curto has been focused on helping life sciences companies solve legal, compliance and regulatory challenges. Dan was a member of the international law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery from 1998 to 2012. As a partner at McDermott, his practice focused on guiding life sciences companies through government investigations, litigation, and compliance remediation. Since 2012, Dan has held various leadership positions at Sanofi, Biogen and BeiGene, including lead global commercial roles, heading a global investigation function that oversaw all internal and external compliance and government investigations and serving as head of global litigation and enterprise risk management. Dan opened Curto Pharma Law and Compliance in 2021 to provide counsel and compliance on demand support to Life Sciences companies.

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