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Bradford Flint

Partner
Areas of Practice
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A broad range of life sciences and technology companies and investors turn to Brad Flint for his combination of experience, deep industry knowledge and business-oriented legal guidance. Recognized as a Chambers USA leading lawyer for business, Brad draws on more than a decade of experience representing both emerging and established companies, as well as institutional investors, to guide clients through the complex array of issues they face, from formation through initial public offering.

Brad co-leads Ropes & Gray’s venture investing and emerging company practice and is a member of the firm’s M&A, and capital markets and governance practices. He advises on minority equity investments, and also on startup and formation matters, corporate governance, debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property licensing, employment and consulting arrangements, commercial agreements, and other general corporate matters. Often serving as general or principal outside counsel to emerging companies, Brad provides both strategic advice and ongoing general corporate counsel, working closely with colleagues across the firm to provide clients with comprehensive business and legal guidance while leading significant transactions on their behalf. Clients consider Brad to be a critical partner in helping them to achieve their business goals.

Brad represents clients from a variety of industries, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, software and technology. He has been counsel to some of the world’s leading life sciences companies, including Pfizer, Sarepta Therapeutics and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, among others. He also regularly represents investors in connection with venture capital, growth equity and other minority equity investment transactions.

Experience

Representative Emerging Company Engagements

  • Represented Genesis Therapeutics in numerous financing rounds, including:
    • completing an oversubscribed $200 million Series B financing to advance the company’s physics-based artificial intelligence-enabled drug development pipeline; and
    • a $52 million Series A financing to accelerate artificial intelligence innovation and a drug discovery & development pipeline. Genesis will use the funds to drive its drug discovery and development programs by hiring more AI researchers, software engineers, medicinal chemists and biotechnology talent; accelerate innovation in AI technologies and advance its therapeutics pipeline.
  • Represented genetic medicine company Arbor Biotechnologies in multiple transactions including:
    • an oversubscribed and up-sized $215 million Series B financing; and
    • a strategic research collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals focused on the discovery of novel proteins, including DNA endonucleases, to further develop new gene-editing therapies for cystic fibrosis and other diseases.
  • Advised leading global financial technology platform iCapital Network in raising $440 million in new financing giving the company an approximate valuation of $4 billion to enhance its platform technology, expand its alternative investment products and pursue strategic acquisitions.
  • Represented Solarea Bio, a clinical stage biotechnology developing food-derived microbial-based solutions to aid human health, in a $15 million Series B financing led by S2G Ventures with continued participation of Bold Capital Partners, Viking Global Investors, and GG 1978 SICAF SIF.
  • Represented Chroma Medicine, Inc., an early-stage biotechnology company focusing on epigenetics, in its $125 million Series A financing to aid in advancing breakthrough epigenetic editing technology and expand pipeline of durable precision genomic medicines.
  • Represented Prevail Therapeutics, Inc., a startup focused on new biologics and gene therapies for Parkinson’s disease, in its formation, Series Seed financing, initial IP in-licensing, and with respect to various general corporate matters as ongoing outside counsel to the company. Prevail was launched and initially financed by The Silverstein Foundation and OrbiMed. In conjunction with its launch, Prevail entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with REGENXBIO Inc. to develop and commercialize gene therapy products using REGENXBIO’s NAV AAV9 vector for the treatment of Parkinson’s and other related neurodegenerative diseases.

Representative VC, Growth, Crossover, and Strategic Investor Engagements

Regularly represents Bain Capital Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, Sands Capital Ventures, Silversmith Capital Partners, and other institutional investors in various venture and growth capital equity investments. Some of such transactions are highlighted below.

  • Represented Pfizer, a leading American pharmaceutical company, and its venture capital arm, Pfizer Ventures, in numerous transactions, including:
    • in its Series B financing for Enara Bio, a developer of medical drug vaccines and other immunotherapies technology designed to treat cancer;
    • in a strategic collaboration with Flagship Pioneering, valued at up to $700 million, to create a new pipeline of innovative medicines;
    • in its strategic investment in and collaboration with innovative UK-based biotechnology company CellCentric, which includes $25 million to help finance further development of inobrodib, its first-in-class p300/CBP inhibitor to treat specific types of cancer;
    • in its $35 million minority investment in Carrick Therapeutics, an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing highly differentiated therapies. Under this agreement, Pfizer will provide global development capabilities and expertise to support Carrick’s Phase 2 study;
    • in its minority investment the Series Seed financing for PrescriberPoint, a digital marketplace for healthcare providers;
    • in its Series A financing commitment in Crossbow Therapeutics, a biotechnology company, as part of a $80 million financing round; and
    • with Allogene Therapeutics for Pfizer's portfolio of assets related to allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy, an investigational immune cell therapy approach to treating cancer.
  • Represented BlackRock Alternatives, through the BlackRock Impact Opportunities Fund and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, in leading a minority investment of over $90 million in MACRO, a multi-platform media company representing the voice and perspectives of people of color.
  • Represented Northpond Ventures, a leading global science, medical, and technology-driven venture firm, in numerous venture capital financings, including the following:
    • in its Series A investment in OPT Industries, a designer and producer of consumer products using computational design and automation engineering;
    • in its Series A investment in Ansa Biotechnologies, a developer of a novel DNA synthesis technology designed to simplify the biological research process;
    • in its Series A investment in CherryCircle Software (d/b/a QbDVision), a developer of a product life cycle management platform designed to provide a digital way to manage development processes; and
    • in its Series B investment in Omass Therapeutics, a developer of a structural mass spectrometry technology platform designed to discover novel medicines.
  • Represented Sands Capital Management in several minority investments including:
    • in its investment in a $50 million Series D financing round for Inspirna, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company;
    • in its investment in a $12.8 million Series A financing round for Credo AI, a developer of an AI governance platform;
    • in its minority investment in OneTrust, a privacy and security software provider; and
    • in its minority investment in Tellius, Inc. an analytics vendor specializing in decision intelligence.
  • Advised Crosspoint Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm focused on the cybersecurity, privacy and infrastructure software markets, in multiple transactions, including:
    • in its minority investment the $20 million Series Seed financing for SynthBee, a developer of a safe, scalable and reliable computing intelligence platform;
    • as leading investor in a €65 million Series A follow-on funding round for Ireland-based Everseen, a leading provider of AI-powered computer vision and hyper automation solutions; and
    • in leading a $50 million Series C investment in Afero, a leading provider of Internet of Things Platform as a Service focused on solutions to provide secure connectivity to IoT devices.
  • Represented Novalis LifeSciences in its Series B investment in Sherlock Biosciences, a biotechnology company that provides molecular diagnostics services.
  • Represented RTW Investments in the Series A financing of Abdera Therapeutics, a precision oncology company developing next-generation targeted radiation therapies.
  • Represented Pentland Group in its Series Seed investment in Robin Golf, a start-up golf equipment company focusing on helping to promote diversity and inclusion in golf.
  • Advised Great Plains Capital in a long-term minority equity investment in Toppers Pizza, a quick-service chain with 70 corporate and franchisee-owned locations primarily in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
  • Represented a medical device company in its $70 million Series B investment (leading a $120 million round) in a medical device start-up.
  • Represented an impact fund in its acquisition of Series Seed investment in a developer of educational software designed to improve academic outcomes.

Other Representative Strategic Transactions

  • Represented Acceleron Pharma, a Cambridge-based biotech company that develops protein therapeutics for cancer and rare diseases, in its initial public offering and concurrent private placement by Celgene with aggregate proceeds of $94 million. The IPO was underwritten by Citigroup, Leerink Swann, JMP Securities and Piper Jaffray.
  • Represented Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited in a partnership with Ambys Medicines, a company launched by Takeda and Third Rock Ventures, to discover and develop novel cell and gene therapies for liver disease. Takeda has committed $100 million and retains options to develop and commercialize products in certain geographies, including participation in the Series A financing.
  • Represented biopharmaceutical company Sarepta Therapeutics in a strategic investment and licensing transaction with Lacerta Therapeutics, a gene therapy company, in which Sarepta entered into a license and option agreement for up to three new CNS-targeted gene therapy programs, including exclusive rights to Lacerta’s gene therapy candidate for Pompe Disease and options to two additional candidates, and made an equity investment of $30 million in Lacerta.
  • Advised Ovid Therapeutics in a collaboration with Graviton Bioscience Corporation under which Ovid will invest $10 million in preferred equity and obtain exclusive rights to develop ROCK2 inhibitors, including GV101, for a range of rare neurological diseases outside of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
  • Advised AbbVie in the negotiation of two collaboration and option agreements with Umoja Biopharma, valued at up to $1.44 billion, under which Umoja will receive upfront payments and an equity investment and AbbVie will obtain rights to certain products embodying Umoja’s gene delivery platform, which enables the in vitro production of anti-cancer CAR-T cells.

Areas of Practice