Joseph W. Arico Ph.D.

Joseph W. Arico, Ph.D. is an associate in the Patent Counseling and Prosecution practice of Dechert’s Intellectual Property group. Dr. Arico has varied patent prosecution and intellectual property diligence experience, including drafting of new patent applications in small molecule, nucleic acids, chemical process and manufacturing, drug formulation and delivery, and diagnostic areas; prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications; patentability and freedom-to-operate substructure searching; and transactional due diligence evaluations of pharmaceutical and medical device patent estates.

Before joining Dechert in 2015, Dr. Arico worked as a patent agent in the Boston office of an international law firm. Prior to Dr. Arico’s legal career, he was a Walther Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Notre Dame in the laboratories of Prof. Richard E. Taylor, where his research included the total synthesis of Tolypothrix polyethers and analogues of neopeltolide and epothilone natural products. Notably, he prepared a small library of epothilone analogues for testing in an Alzheimer’s animal model in collaboration with a large pharmaceutical company. Dr. Arico earned his Ph.D. at Boston College with Prof. Larry W. McLaughlin, where he synthesized nucleoside analogues for antiviral testing and to advance understanding of DNA structure; prepared oligonucleotides and examined their physical properties to study hydration in the minor groove of DNA; and developed new protecting group and glycosylation methods to prepare purine nucleosides more efficiently and rapidly.