Joseph Fuisz is an American

attorney Attorney may refer to: * Lawyer ** Attorney at law, in some jurisdictions * Attorney, one who has power of attorney * ''The Attorney'', a 2013 South Korean film See also * Attorney general, the principal legal officer of (or advisor to) a gove ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...

, and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

n descent. He works predominantly in the

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and ...

industry as the founder of Fuisz Pharma LLC. As of October 2015, he is named on 32 medical patents, and over forty patents. He has been involved in the development of

drug delivery Drug delivery refers to approaches, formulations, manufacturing techniques, storage systems, and technologies involved in transporting a pharmaceutical compound to its target site to achieve a desired therapeutic effect. Principles related to dr ...

and the approval of new drugs and low emission

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ch ...

products. Joseph Fuisz is a named inventor of the formulation of the drug,

Suboxone Buprenorphine/naloxone, sold under the brand name Suboxone among others, is a fixed-dose combination medication that includes buprenorphine and naloxone. It is used to treat opioid use disorder, and reduces the mortality of opioid use disorder ...

. The sales of

in 2013 were reported to be $1.2 billion in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Early life and education

Joseph Fuisz is the son of

Richard Fuisz Richard Carl Fuisz (born December 12, 1939) is an American physician, inventor, and entrepreneur, with connections to the United States military and intelligence community. He holds more than two hundred patents worldwide, in such diverse fie ...

and Patricia Fuisz. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

and

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked ...

Career

Joseph Fuisz began his career in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

, after graduating from Columbia University Law School. He passed the New York Bar exam and began practising law at

Sullivan & Cromwell Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such a ...

. He subsequently moved into medical patents, a field his father

had worked in for a number of years. In 2000, Joseph Fuisz and

founded International Fluidics, which was rebranded as Kosmos Pharma Limited two years later. Richard began as the more senior figure in the company, before the sale of the company in 2004. The rebranding came at a time when the company filed a number of patents that successfully allow highly sensitive

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respon ...

s to be taken orally. One example of this came in 2002, the company successfully developed stamp-size

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, and Health promotion ...

strips that could dissolve quickly in a patient's mouth. Kosmos Pharma Limited was acquired by MonoSol LLC in 2004, with Joseph Fuisz becoming MonoSol's Senior Vice President. Joseph Fuisz eventually moved back to Fuisz LLC, concentrating on

patents. Joseph Fuisz is also a named inventor in the Orange Book for the drug,

. It is a formulation of the

Buprenorphine Buprenorphine is an opioid used to treat opioid use disorder, acute pain, and chronic pain. It can be used under the tongue (sublingual), in the cheek (buccal), by injection (intravenous and subcutaneous), as a skin patch (transdermal ...

and is used for the treatment of

opioid addiction Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. Op ...

in higher dosages, and to control pain lower doses, with dosage depending on the severity. The drug is also used for the treatment of heroin addiction, and since 2014 has been valued at over $1 billion in sales annually by its provider,

Indivior Indivior is a specialty pharmaceuticals business. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The company was established as the Buprenorphine division of Reckitt Benckiser in 1994. In December 20 ...

. MonoSol Rx announced they had acquired a patent from Joseph Fuisz in 2012. The patent was related to

and the use of film single layer multifunctional films. The

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practi ...

patent provides for a non-uniform distribution of components. The thickness direction of a layer of biocompatible film, which allows for a multifunctional film to be used in a traditional single layer. While working in the medical

market, Joseph Fuisz founded Fuisz Tobacco, which was a subsidiary of Fuisz Inc. He became the Managing Director of the company in 2008. Fuisz Tobacco developed a dissolving tobacco film strip. Joseph Fuisz claimed improved nicotine absorption from

in this format. The

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...

for this system is assigned to

Philip Morris International Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) is an American multinational tobacco company, with products sold in over 180 countries. The most recognized and best selling product of the company is Marlboro. Philip Morris International is often refe ...

. Joseph Fuisz's next major advancement in

came in September 2013, when he

ed a delivery mechanism that used a coating. The coating, allowed for an increase in the local pH within the body, which led to maximised nicotine absorption. Joseph Fuisz has developed new tablet shapes that allow for improved esophageal transit. The

US Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

issued a patent for this work in 2015. In 2014, Joseph Fuisz and a blood-testing patent he filed were involved in a dispute with another medical research company.

Theranos Theranos Inc. () was an American privately held corporation that was touted as a breakthrough health technology company. Founded in 2003 by then 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and ...

accused Joseph Fuisz and his father

of stealing documents of a patent they were to file. A parallel case against

McDermott, Will & Emery McDermott Will & Emery is an international law firm with a diversified business practice. The firm is one of the largest grossing law firms in the US and globally, and its lawyers represent a wide range of commercial, industrial and financial e ...

was dismissed by a judge in late 2014, stating there was no evidence of theft. Joseph Fuisz represented himself pro se in the

case. The litigation story between Fuisz and Theranos and

David Boies David Boies (; born March 11, 1941) is an American lawyer and chairman of the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. Boies rose to national prominence for three major cases: leading the U.S. federal government's successful prosecution of Microsof ...

is discussed at length in the book '' Bad Blood'' by

John Carreyrou John Carreyrou () is a French-American journalist and writer who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal'' for 20 years between 1999 and 2019 and has been based in Brussels, Paris, and New York City. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice and is well kno ...

. In ''Bad Blood'', author John Carreyrou concludes there was no evidence of theft by the Fuiszes. Fuisz discussed this litigation with various media outlets, including

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

’s podcast series, ''The Drop Out''. Fuisz also provided an interview with

TRT World TRT World is a Turkish public broadcaster international news channel which broadcasts in English 24 hours a day, operated by the TRT and based in Taksim Square, Istıklal Avenue, Beyoğlu, Istanbul. It provides worldwide news and current affairs ...

in which he describes his role together with

in exposing the Theranos fraud, as well as an interview wit
John Carreyrou for Bad Blood the Final Chapter
In recent years, Fuisz has obtained new drug delivery patents related to new methods of manufacturing

thin film A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many a ...

s for

Thin-film drug delivery Thin-film drug delivery uses a dissolving film or oral drug strip to administer drugs via absorption in the mouth ( buccally or sublingually) and/or via the small intestines ( enterically). A film is prepared using hydrophilic polymers that rapi ...

. In 2020, Joseph Fuisz announced a new venture, Nova thin Films, based on patents obtained by

and Joseph Fuisz to make pharmaceutical films by deposit. Joseph Fuisz recently announced the issuance of patents related to heat not burn tobacco compositions. Mr. Fuisz received two patents relating t
heat-not-burn heating systems in August, 2021
As of 2020, Mr. Fuisz is a named inventor on approximately forty US patents.

Personal life

Joseph Fuisz married his wife Helena Robinson in 2006.

External links

Fuisz LLC Homepage

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuisz, Joseph Living people 21st-century American inventors American lawyers American people of Slovenian descent Columbia Law School alumni American businesspeople Sullivan & Cromwell people Yale University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)