For the World’s Most Innovative Companies, Ropes & Gray Guides $5.6 Billion in Life Sciences Licensing Deals over Two Weeks

During the last two weeks, Ropes & Gray has guided nine significant life sciences licensing and collaboration deals, with a total maximum value of $5.6 billion. The transactions underscore the strength of Ropes & Gray’s award-winning, global life sciences licensing, collaboration & joint ventures team, which is renowned for its work guiding clients in structuring and negotiating all forms of complex agreements. The team’s recent accomplishments include:

1. Chiesi Group in a global strategic collaboration and license with Gossamer Bio to develop and commercialize Gossamer’s blood pressure treatment seralutinib. The team was led by life sciences licensing partner Amanda Austin and life sciences licensing associate Nicole Rohr and included life sciences licensing and emerging companies and venture capital partner Marc Rubenstein, life sciences regulatory & compliance partner Kellie Combs, tax partner David Saltzman, emerging companies and venture capital counsel Ray Grant and litigation & enforcement counsel Deidre Johnson.
2. Erasca, a precision oncology company, in an exclusive license agreement for a pre-clinical RAS mutation targeting program with a potent oral tumor inhibitor, a potential best-in-class pan-RAS molecular glue called ERAS-0015. The team included IP transactions partner Geoffrey Lin, emerging companies and venture capital partner Rajarshi Banerjee and IP transactions associates Peter Chi and Nick Cheung.
3. FogPharma in its partnership with ARTBIO to co-develop new radiopharmaceutical cancer therapies that deliver targeted radiation precisely to cancer cells. The team included life sciences licensing partner Hannah England and life sciences licensing associates Dan Freshman and Catherine Choi.
4. Fulcrum Therepeutics in a collaboration and license agreement with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi for the development and commercialization of losmapimod, an oral therapy being investigated for the treatment of the rare disease facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). The team was led by Amanda Austin and Marc Rubenstein and life sciences licensing associate Ana Gomez-Palazzo.
5. G1 Therapeutics in a global license agreement with Pepper Bio. Pepper Bio is gaining exclusive rights to advance the development of lerociclib, a promising treatment for various types of cancer. The team was led by life sciences licensing partner Abigail Gregor and IP transactions counsel Georgina Jones Suzuki.
6. Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals in a collaboration and option-to-license agreement with AbbVie to develop next-generation therapies for psychiatric disorders. The deal is valued at over $2 billion. The team was led by Hannah England and life sciences licensing associate Ian Nilsen and included tax partner David Saltzman.
7. Novavax in a co-exclusive licensing agreement with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi to sell Novavax COVID-19 vaccine and develop a novel COVID19-Influenza vaccine. The team was led by Hannah England and life sciences licensing partner David McIntosh, capital markets partner Tara Fisher and Ian Nilsen and included antitrust partners Mike McFalls and Ruchit Patel and litigation & enforcement counsel Deidre Johnson and Joseph Rafferty.
8. Novo Nordisk in a research collaboration agreement with Flagship Pioneering and Metaphore Biotechnologies, a company designing drugs by combining machine learning and molecular mimicry, to develop up to two next-generation therapeutics for the treatment of obesity. The team was led by Hannah England and life sciences licensing associate Dan Freshman.
9. Xeris Biopharma in an exclusive worldwide collaboration and license agreement with Beta Bionics to help people with diabetes. The team was led by Abigail Gregor and Nicole Rohr and life sciences licensing associate Esteban De La Torre.

Ropes & Gray’s healthcare and life sciences industry group serves the legal and business needs of the world’s leading industry participants. Representing clients across all sub-sectors, our internationally-recognized team counsels pharma, biotech and medical device companies; digital health and technology companies expanding into the industry; major hospital systems, academic medical centers, and healthcare service providers; and hundreds of investors, including private equity, asset management, venture capital, and investment banking firms. Drawing on resources in our offices around the globe, which include EU and Asia regulatory specialists, we focus on developing cutting edge solutions to help clients meet their business goals.