Attorneys

Dr. Xiaofan (Frank) Yang provides strategic intellectual property counseling to public and private pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. His patent counselling and prosecution experience benefits growth enterprises in all stages of development, from proof of concept to clinical development, regulatory approval and product launch. He also conducts due diligence for buyers and sellers in complex venture financings, public offerings, partnering transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Dr. Yang has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and worked as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry before becoming a patent attorney.

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• Managed IP matters for Otonomy, Inc., including its $100M IPO and follow-up offerings
• Led IP due diligence for Denali Therapeutics’ $250M initial public offering (IPO), follow-up offering, and subsequent licensing and collaboration transactions with Takeda and Sanofi.
• Managed IP matters for Evofem Biosciences, Inc., including its merger with Neothetics, Inc.
• Guided biotechnology company United Therapeutics in multiple large licensing and M&A transactions
• Strategic counselling leading to interference/appeal win for Otonomy in a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceeding
• Strategic counselling leading to PTAB post-grant review (PGR) win for Paragon Bioteck in first-ever Orange Book patent upheld in a PGR proceeding

• Co-awardee, Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, 2001

• J.D., Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2011
• Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, Tulane University, 2004
• B.S., Polymer Chemistry, Nanjing University, China, 1997

• "Procopio adds partner," San Diego Daily Transcript, November 4, 2019.

• Co-author, "2,4-Diaryltetrahydropyran Formation by the Prins Cyclization and Its Application towards the Synthesis of Epicalyxin F and Calyxin I," 12 SYNLETT 1912-1916, 2005
• Co-author, "Ruthenium catalyzed tandem olefin-migration/aldol and Mannich-type reactions in ionic liquid," 214 Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical 147-154, 2004
• Co-author, "Aldol- and Mannich-type reactions via in situ olefin migration in ionic liquid," 5 Organic Letters 657-660, 2003
• Co-author, "Ruthenium-catalyzed tandem olefin migration/aldol and Mannich-type reactions in water and protic solvents," European Journal of Organic Chemistry 998-1003, 2003
• Co-author, "Diastereoselective synthesis of polysubstituted tetrahydropyrans and thiacyclohexanes via indium trichloride mediated cyclizations," 66 Journal of Organic Chemistry 739-747, 2001
• Co-author, "Diastereoselective synthesis of multi-substituted thiacyclohexanes via cation-olefine cyclization," 41 Tetrahedron Letters 1321-1325, 2000