Mariana Ricardo

Senior Associate, DLA Piper

Lisbon, Portugal

About me

Mariana has a public law background and practises in the areas of life sciences and regulation, covering regulatory issues in healthcare, notably in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other health-related products. She advises public entities and private companies in a wide range of sectors, including waste management (notably medical and pharmaceutical hazardous waste), construction and infrastructure.

Mariana's experiences include advising an American based pharma company in its day-to-day operations in Portugal on pricing and market access, public procurement, interactions with HCPs, transparency obligations, orphan drugs an EAPs. She has also represented a European multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company in litigation related to a medical device product liability claim.

08 Jul 2021

Judgment in Case C-178/20 - Pharma Expressz

By Mariana Ricardo

On 8 July the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its judgement in Case C-178/20, concerning the placement on the market...

09 Jun 2021

Portugal discusses draft-laws to legalize cannabis for personal use

By Inês Santana Metello, Mariana Ricardo

The Portuguese Parliament will meet to debate two draft-laws aimed at legalizing cannabis for non-medical personal use.

Both draft-laws...

11 May 2021

EC's variations to the terms of marketing authorisations - another COVID-19 dictated reform

By Mariana Ricardo

As countries in the European Union (EU) take baby steps towards reopening businesses and ramp up COVID-19 vaccination, the pandemic and...

28 Mar 2021

On the radar: negotiations on a legislative proposal concerning HTA to start

By Mariana Ricardo

Following the European Commission's (EC) adoption of a proposal for a Regulation on health technology assessment (HTA) in 2018, and the...

12 Mar 2021

Medical Devices Regulation: Portugal issues a notification pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/1535

By Mariana Ricardo

Portugal has recently initiated the 2015/1535 notification procedure of the decree-law ensuring the implementation in the internal legal...

28 Feb 2021

Back to the future: the European Commission is consulting on the upcoming revision of the blood, tissues and cells Directives

By Mariana Ricardo

Significant technological and scientific development over the last few years has shown that the EU’s framework on blood, tissues and cells (

10 Feb 2021

The emergence of strategic assets in the health sector: Portugal takes the final step to create a National Medicines Laboratory

By Mariana Ricardo, Inês Santana Metello

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Europe in 2020, the Portuguese Government took the opportunity to establish the health sector as a...

08 Dec 2020

What’s the plan? A New Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe

By Darach Connolly, Dr Kokularajah Paheenthararajah, Mariana Ricardo

On 25 November 2020, the European Commission published its Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe (Strategy).

The Strategy is relevant for all...