While companies enter transactions to reap the benefit of the relationship rather than anticipating disputes, it is important to consider the appropriate forum for resolving any disputes that may arise. Companies sometimes opt for litigation as a default position, because they have greater familiarity with the court system. Below, we list certain benefits of selecting arbitration that life sciences companies may want to consider before selecting the dispute forum in their next agreement.

• Greater confidentiality. In contrast to litigation, arbitration is generally confidential, with hearings held in private. This may be particularly beneficial to life sciences companies seeking to protect their commercially sensitive information from public disclosure.
• Ease of enforcement. Arbitration benefits from a comprehensive enforcement regime via the New York Convention, which makes enforcement straight-forward in most jurisdictions. Court judgments can be harder to enforce globally, depending on the extent to which the country where the judgment is issued has enforcement treaties in place with the country where enforcement is sought.
• Neutrality. Arbitration enables life sciences parties to resolve disputes in a neutral forum, rather than in the local courts where one of the parties is domiciled.
• Qualified arbitrators. Arbitration enables life sciences companies to select arbitrators with the right knowledge and experience of the sector. In contrast, litigation may involve a judge unfamiliar with the life sciences industry.
• Interim relief. Although it is traditionally perceived as easier to obtain interim relief in litigation – for instance, to enjoin or restrain the misuse of intellectual property – interim relief is also generally available in arbitration from either the arbitral tribunal or the court of the arbitral seat.
• Early dismissal opportunities. To counter another traditionally perceived advantage of litigation, most of the main arbitral bodies have recently introduced revisions to their rules empowering tribunals to summarily dispose of manifestly unmeritorious claims.
• Finality. Arbitral awards are binding and generally subject to narrower grounds of appeal compared to court judgments, which can reduce the risk of having to engage in a protracted appeals process.

Where life sciences companies select arbitration as the forum for resolving disputes, they will want to carefully draft the arbitration provision to ensure that they do not inadvertently lose any of the above benefits.