New England Healthcare Executive Network Member Meeting
Monday, May 4th, 2026 | 8:00 am – 10:00 am
FOLEY HOAG LLP
Seaport West, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
Program Description
From Idea to Asset: Making Patents Count
In today’s environment, IP strategy directly impacts valuation, funding, and exit outcomes. Rising costs, increased scrutiny, and real-world enforcement challenges are forcing companies to rethink how they manage and invest in their patent portfolios.
Join NEHEN for a practical, in-the-trenches discussion on what actually works in today’s IP landscape.
You’ll learn:
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How leading companies prioritize patent investments in capital-constrained environments
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Where IP strategy most directly impacts fundraising and valuation
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How to navigate validity challenges and enforcement risk
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Best practices for managing outside counsel and internal IP resources
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What investors and operators look for in a defensible patent strategy
Our panel brings together experienced leaders across patent services, entrepreneurship, and IP investment to share real-world insights and actionable guidance.
Following the discussion, we will host a moderated Q&A to dive deeper into your questions.
Meet the Experts:
Barbara A. Fiacco
Partner & Co-Chair, Patent & Trade Secrets Litigation, Foley Hoag
Barbara Fiacco is Co-Chair of the Patent Litigation Practice and represents life sciences companies and research institutions in complex intellectual property disputes. Her practice focuses on the biomedical field, including gene therapy, epigenetics, sequencing, recombinant DNA technology, therapeutic antibodies, small molecule compounds, drug delivery, molecular diagnostics, and medical devices.
She has represented leading pharmaceutical and life sciences clients in significant patent infringement lawsuits, resulting in summary judgment or other favorable outcomes. Barbara also represents these clients in trade secrets, inventorship, and collaboration disputes, as well as other commercial litigation.
Nimra Taqi
Vice President, Business Development and Licensing, Mass General Brigham
Nimra Taqi is a vice-president at Mass General Brigham and leads the Innovation, Business Development & Licensing team. The BD&L team manages and commercializes MGB faculty-developed intellectual property assets, including therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, software, and research tools. Nimra’s 34-member professional team manages the prosecution and management of over 2500 issued patents and thousands of patent applications. Her team negotiates 300+ license/option agreements annually to partner with technologies that enhance care and benefit patients. She also manages relationships with law firms providing patent services to MGB. MGB is the largest single recipient of NIH funding. Its research funding from all sources exceeds $2.5B. It has over 6000 PI’s and other innovators.
Nimra has been at BD&L since 2015. Prior to joining Mass General Brigham, Nimra led the medical device group at Global Prior Art, Inc., an intellectual property research firm in Boston. Her work included evaluating technologies and performing patent landscape analysis for medical device companies and intellectual property law firms. Nimra received her Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia Tech and her master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Alain Tranchemontagne
CEO of Alleviate Inc.
Alain Tranchemontagne has over 30 years of medical device experience, spanning start-ups to Fortune 500 organizations. He has various commercial and general management responsibilities. He also brings significant global experience in product and market development. He has demonstrated that tough IP decisions should not be feared, but thought through, and that seemingly impossible circumstances can be overcome to create value. He is currently President & CEO of Alleviate, Inc., a sports medicine startup. Previously, he served as President and CEO of HydroCision and held leadership positions at Smith & Nephew, Covidien (now Medtronic), and other medical device manufacturers. Alain completed his undergraduate studies at Concordia University and holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Moderated By:
Russ Barron
Principal at Barron Legal Services
Russ Barron’s 50-year career has focused on patent law, including 30+ years as a trial lawyer and advisor across a wide range of technologies and industries. He was a founder of the Foley & Lardner IP practice. He has advised private equity funds in patent acquisition and monetization. More recently, he has served as the in-house lawyer for a now-commercial NIH-funded medical device company and a developmental pharma in Phase 2 clinical trials. Each of these companies has an extensive patent portfolio that he designed. He currently advises clients in the IP, government contracting, and general counsel areas at Barron Legal Services PC. His degrees are from Princeton and NYU.