M. Diana Danca, Ph.D.

Dr. M. Diana Danca is an associate at Leason Ellis and a member of the Patent Practice Group. Diana’s experience spans a broad range of technologies, and she prepares and prosecutes patent applications for cancer and CNS therapeutics, drug delivery and formulations, small molecules, enantiomers, polymorphs, protein drug products, protein chemistry and purification, diagnostic and therapeutic methods.

Diana also has experience in patent infringement matters, with an emphasis on chemical, biotech, and pharmaceutical patent litigation under the Hatch-Waxman Act and the BPCIA. She has conducted due diligence investigations related to mergers and acquisitions and provided opinions on patentability and patent infringement issues.

Before practicing law, Diana worked as a medicinal chemist, designing and synthesizing novel compounds, and is a co-inventor of NINLARO®, a novel oral proteasome inhibitor approved in 2015 for the treatment of multiple myeloma, and CGI-1842, a kinase inhibitor evaluated in Phase I/II clinical trials. Additionally, she is a co-inventor on several pharmaceutical patents and co-author of multiple scientific publications in organic and medicinal chemistry.