Diego Vaiano

Diego Vaiano is our exclusively recommended Life Sciences Law expert in Italy on the Advisory Excellence website. If you need assistance in this area, please contact Diego directly using the contact details listed above.

Diego is a member of the Rome Bar since January 1994 and he is certified to represent his clients before the higher courts (Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Cassation, Council of State) since December 14, 2001.

Within his professional activity, he practices in particular in the fields of Healthcare and Life Sciences; Prof. Vaiano is in fact widely recognised as one of the leading Italian experts in pharmaceutical and medical devices law. In the last two decades, he defended the pharmaceutical industry in the most challenging and relevant litigations of the sector, such as those related to the governance of retail and hospital pharmaceutical expenditure, the review measures of the National Pharmaceutical Handbook, the price cuts and ex factory profit margins imposed on the industry since the early 2000s, as well as the resolutions adopted by AIFA and the Regions on the therapeutic equivalence between medicinal products based on different active ingredients. He was also involved in major negotiations with the Italian Medicines Agency aimed at defining the price and the other reimbursement conditions for drugs dispensed with costs borne by the SSN (the Italian NHS).

He has been a member of the Farmindustria Board of Arbitrators since 2008, also acting as a consultant for Confindustria – Medical devices with regard to payback issues within the relevant sector.

His professional commitment and his clients’ appreciation allowed Diego Vaiano to receive numerous awards and accolades, including Professional of the Year in the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences sectors at the Top Legal Industry Awards for 2017 and 2018; Leading Life Sciences Lawyer of the year from the Acquisition International Magazine for the years 2019 and 2020; and Life Sciences Lawyer of the year from ACQ5 (Acquisition Finance Magazine) for the years 2019 and 2020. Moreover, he steadily appears among the professionals recommended by all the most renowned international directories of the sector, such as Chambers, Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal.

Over the years, he also acquired an extensive professional experience in other fields of administrative law, including public procurements, state property concessions and public services, as well as cultural heritage and environment. In particular, for many years he has been a lawyer and consultant for the Port Authority of Civitavecchia, Fiumicino and Gaeta, while also defending leading companies in the sector of the contracts for the restoration of cultural heritage, catering services and technical and medical gas supply.

He is Full Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Viterbo – La Tuscia since November 1, 2001, after being Associate Professor at the same University since 1999. He is the author of qualified scientific publications on administrative law, with particular reference to issues specifically related to administrative justice, public procurement law and cultural heritage law. Among these, of particular interest are the monographs on La riserva di funzione amministrativa (“The reserve of administrative function”), Milan, Giuffré, 1996; the Pretesa di provvedimento e processo amministrativo (“Provision claim and the administrative process”), Milan, Giuffré, 2002; and La valorizzazione dei beni culturali (“The valorisation of cultural heritage”), Turin, Giappichelli, 2011.

In 2017 – after the conclusion of a previous associative experience – he founded with Francesco Cataldo, Esq. the Vaiano-Cataldo Law Firm, which is composed of a team of smart lawyers, voted to the swift and accurate satisfaction of the Clients’ needs. The Firm’s partners and associates are highly specialised in pharmaceutical and Life Sciences law, as well as in other relevant areas of administrative law, such as – indeed – public procurements, state property concessions and public services.

Firm Overview:

Based in Rome, the Vaiano-Cataldo Law Firm consists of a team of administrative lawyers headed by Prof. Diego Vaiano and by Francesco Cataldo.

The Firm is a recognised excellence in the legal field of Life Sciences, with particular regard to pharmaceutical law and medical devices, in relation to which it provides judicial and extrajudicial advice and assistance to the most important Companies worldwide. Due to their high specialisation and competence in this sector, Diego Vaiano and his Firm received numerous awards from the most authoritative specialised magazines and journals.

The Firm also provides legal counselling on public procurement – in particular on services and supplies – and in general on public and private contracts related to the reference sectors, offering support to its Clients at every stage of the procedure, from the study of tender deeds to the preparation of any requests for clarification or quotation documents, up to the executive phase, assisting them where necessary before the Regional Administrative Courts, the Council of State and the ordinary civil jurisdiction (Courts, Courts of Appeal and Court of Cassation).

Other areas of activity where the Firm can boast recognised expertise and experience are those of general health law, administrative licensing of public goods and services, trade and production activities, environment, construction and urban planning and public competitions. Last but not least, the experience gained by the Firm’s partners in arbitration & litigation is also significant.

Its swiftness in responding to the Client’s needs, its constant professional updating and the personal and passionate contribution of the partners and their collaborators in the management of each individual case constitute the distinctive trait of the Firm, whose success and reputation have always been based on the appreciation expressed by its Clients.

The Vaiano-Cataldo Law Firm also avails itself of well-established collaborations with a network of professionals with experience in complementary sectors, as well as with local counsels of the highest profile, thanks to whose contribution it can provide a comprehensive assistance to the Client in the aforementioned matters and before all regional Administrative Courts and all Civil Courts on the national territory.