Ropes & Gray Advises on the Launch of Kailera Therapeutics

Ropes & Gray advised Kailera Therapeutics, Inc. and its investors on the establishment of the company, its $400 million Series A financing, and the worldwide (ex-China) licensing by the company of a portfolio of clinical-stage metabolic disease assets from Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, a leading Chinese pharmaceutical company.  Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, and RTW Investments led the Series A financing, with participation from Lyra Capital.

Kailera is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing a broad pipeline of next-generation therapies for the treatment of obesity and related conditions.  The company is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, and San Diego, California.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by New York-based corporate partner Arthur Mok, San Francisco-based licensing partner Geoffrey Lin, Boston-based corporate counsel Ray Grant and Boston-based licensing associate Evan Tallmadge.  The team also included Singapore-based regulatory partner Katherine Wang, Washington D.C.-based national security partner Ama Adams, Washington D.C.-based antitrust partner Jonathan Klarfeld, Boston-based tax partners Amanda Holt and David Saltzman, and Boston-based executive compensation & employee benefits partner Renata Ferrari.