S. Sean Tu is a nationally recognized expert on patent law and drug law. He holds degrees in chemistry and microbiology from the University of Florida and a J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he was a research assistant for Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Dr. Tu received his doctorate in pharmacology from Cornell University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California. He is affiliated with Harvard Medical School’s Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL) and a scholar at Georgetown University Law School’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.
A prolific scholar with over fifty publications, his work has appeared in top medical and law journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature Biotechnology, and Stanford Technology Law Review, among others. His 2024 co-authored article, Differential Legal Protections for Biologics vs Small-Molecule Drugs in the US, was the recipient of AcademyHealth’s 2025 Publication of the Year award. He has also co-authored several amicus briefs, one of which was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. He is co-author of casebooks on biotechnology and intellectual property law.
In 2021-2022, he was a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School. The National Institutes of Health Care Management awarded Professor Tu a grant to study the intersection between patent law and drug pricing. Prior to his tenure as a faculty member at West Virginia University College of Law, Professor Tu was an associate at Foley & Lardner LLP, where he prosecuted pharmaceutical patents.
In addition to his scholarly work and public service, Professor Tu served two years as Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at West Virginia University College of Law. He has worked as an expert witness for patent law cases and helped start a company focused on patent prosecution analytics and a small biotechnology company focused on cancer cell biology.