Photo of Bart Van Vooren

Bart Van Vooren

Bart Van Vooren has a broad life sciences practice supporting innovative pharmaceutical, food, medtech and biotech companies on EU regulatory, commercial and strategic policy assignments. He is widely recognized for his expertise on general EU law and procedure, as well as his extensive litigation experience before the EU Court of Justice in dozens of cases.

Over the past seven years, Bart has developed a niche practice on compliance with the Biodiversity Convention and the Nagoya Protocol, a set of rules to combat bio-piracy worldwide. He has accumulated unique, practical experience in dozens of jurisdictions around the world, and has handled everything from benefit-sharing negotiations, over compliance programs, to inspections by authorities.

Finally, Bart has an active pro bono practice assisting NGOs defending the human rights of persons with a disability through strategic litigation.

During his previous professional career, Bart was a professor of EU law at the University of Copenhagen and published a couple of books with Oxford and Cambridge University Press. His academic swan song was the (now leading) textbook republished in 2020 by his former academic colleagues in 2nd edition: EU External Relations Law, available from Hart Publishing.

Image Credit: World Health Organization

On 16 April 2025, Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded negotiations on a new international treaty: the Agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (“WHO Pandemic Agreement”). Set to be adopted at the May 2025 World Health Assembly, this landmark accord aims

Continue Reading What Companies Should Know About the WHO Pandemic Agreement

On February 26, 2025, the Cali Fund was officially launched.  Established by the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (“CBD”), the Cali Fund invites pharma, cosmetics, food, AI, plant breeding, animal breeding, biotech, and other companies to “share monetary benefits” from uses of digital sequence information on

Continue Reading The Cali Fund and Why Legal Certainty Matters for Life Sciences R&D

On 23 January 2025, we hosted the 2025 edition of the Covington European Life Sciences Symposium. The Symposium brought together colleagues from London, Brussels, Frankfurt and Dublin with our industry connections to explore the evolving challenges and opportunities facing the European life sciences sector.Continue Reading The Covington European Life Sciences Symposium 2025

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has opened four consultations inviting stakeholder input on the development of the new Multilateral Mechanism on Benefit-Sharing (MLM) for Digital Sequence Information (DSI), including the establishment of the global benefit-sharing fund known as “The Cali Fund.”  

Companies are encouraged to

Continue Reading Just Weeks After COP16: CBD Secretariat Launches Stakeholder Consultations for the Operationalization of the DSI Mechanism. How Should Companies Engage?

In a precedent decision, on 13 November 2024, the EU General Court annulled significant parts of a Commission Regulation, which sought to restrict or place under scrutiny the addition of certain botanicals containing hydroxyanthracene derivatives (“HADs”) to foods.  The Court held that the Commission had exceeded its powers by seeking to regulate botanical “preparations.”  Moreover, the Commission, in relying on the scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (“EFSA”), had failed to demonstrate that the relevant substances would be ingested in amounts greatly exceeding those consumed from a normal diet or otherwise represented a potential risk to consumers. Continue Reading EU Court Overturns EU-wide Botanical Food Ban

Photo: View from the business delegation to the negotiations in Montreal, of which Covington were part.

On August 16th, 2024, in Montreal, Canada, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (“CBD”) agreed on the draft text (“Draft decision”) for the operationalization of the Global

Continue Reading Soon a new global tax on products developed from “digital information” from biological materials? 5 key takeaways for companies from recent UN negotiations

Today, the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) finished the preparatory session for the draft International Legal Instrument Relating to Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge Associated with Genetic Resources (the “Instrument”), which will be discussed and adopted at a diplomatic conference in 2024.

At the

Continue Reading WIPO proposes new Patent Disclosure obligations on Genetic Resources: What impact for companies?

By May 2024, the 194 countries of the World Health Organization (“WHO”) aim to finalize negotiations on a new international treaty on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (“Pandemic Accord”).  At the center of the negotiations is the contentious issue of Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (“P-ABS

Continue Reading Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (P-ABS) under the draft WHO Pandemic Treaty: Why Many Vaccine, Therapeutic, and Diagnostic Companies will be in Scope

In short

We won Case T-201/21 Covington & Van Vooren vs European Commission.  But why did we litigate?  Why did we ask to see how the member states voted on an EU implementing act?  A short background story, worth a few minutes of your time if interested in the

Continue Reading The EU member states’ votes banning a product cannot be presumed confidential: Why we litigated Case T-201/21 Covington & VanVooren vs European Commission (and won)