Ropes & Gray: From the Boardroom Program 2023

BUILDING NEXT GENERATION COMPANIES:

INVESTMENT THEMES THAT WILL SHAPE LIFE SCIENCES DEALMAKING STRATEGIES IN 2023 AND BEYOND

Our panel of industry experts will examine top investment themes actively shaping the life sciences industry, exploring the range of strategies companies and investors are deploying across transactions, including a discussion of strategies focused on accessing platform technologies of biotechs v. acquiring rights to therapeutic assets.

Hear from our panelists about how they see key technologies, including advanced precision medicine, next-generation gene therapies, drug discovery enabled by machine learning and enabling delivery technologies, are changing the way investors and other dealmakers see future opportunity and impact.

THE PANELISTS

ABBIE CELNIKER, PH.D. | THIRD ROCK VENTURES PARTNER KIRAN REDDY, M.D. | BLACKSTONE LIFE SCIENCES SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR

Abbie has over 30 years of experience in senior R&D and executive leadership roles, and focuses on the formation, development and strategy of our portfolio companies. She has a strong commitment to culture, and prioritizes establishing experienced, diverse teams.

Emerging technologies and new advances in science excite Abbie because of their impact on the ability of Third Rock Ventures’ portfolio companies to make a difference in the lives of patients. She is eager to continue using her industry expertise to build innovative companies from the ground up, and enthusiastic about tackling the toughest disease challenges in medicine.

Abbie’s proudest accomplishments have been associated with seeing how young, courageous leaders develop and evolve when they are mentored and given encouragement to take risk and spread their wings. Abbie is a member of the MassBio board of directors, where she is passionate about supporting the organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

Kiran Reddy is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group having joined in May 2020. He was previously the President and CEO of Praxis Precision Medicines, which he co-founded in November 2016.

Previously, Kiran was at Biogen, where he was part of the Corporate Development and Strategy leadership team. He was also Associate Partner at Third Rock Ventures. He supported and managed various portfolio companies in addition to focusing on new company formation and new investments. He was part of the founding team and interim Chief Business Officer for SAGE Therapeutics through its IPO. He was also part of the team that launched Foundation Medicine, and he has served as a Board Observer for Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals and PanOptica.

Kiran holds M.D. and MBA degrees from Georgetown University. He completed his internship in medicine and his neurology residency at Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital. He was previously a Howard Hughes science fellow and has authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers in the field of epilepsy, neuroimmunology and neurodegenerative diseases.

JASON RUSSELL | MORGAN STANLEY MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jason Russell is a Managing Director with the healthcare investment banking team at Morgan Stanley with coverage efforts focused primarily on biotech and biopharma companies. He has 16+ years of experience working closely with public and private clients across the market capitalization spectrum. Key areas of focus include equity, debt and royalty financings as well as strategic advisory and M&A assignments. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2014, he worked in a similar capacity at Cowen and Company. Jason graduated as the First Honor Graduate with a B.S. in business administration and accounting from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina.

ANNA MARIE WAGNER | GINKGO BIOWORKS SVP, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

Anna Marie Wagner is the SVP of Corporate Development at Ginkgo Bioworks. She also served as the company’s Interim CFO from June through November 2020. Ginkgo Bioworks is a synthetic biology platform that believes that biology will become as easy to program as computers. The company has raised over $900M in venture capital funding and has partnerships with companies including Bayer, ADM, Cargill, Genomatica, Cronos, Roche, Synlogic, and Moderna. Prior to joining Ginkgo, Anna Marie spent nearly a decade at Bain Capital Private Equity, investing across industries but most recently covering the vertical software, internet, and digital media sectors. She holds a B.A. in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar.

MELISSA RONES, PH.D. | ROPES & GRAY PARTNER AND CO-HEAD OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS GROUP | MODERATOR

Melissa counsels life sciences clients on a wide range of intellectual property issues, including patent portfolio strategy and life cycle management, licensing and monetization strategy, and the risks associated with third-party intellectual property. She also performs due diligence investigations and advises clients on strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to mitigate risk and remedy issues related to intellectual property in the context of a range of transactions, including private financings and capital markets transactions, license agreements, collaborations, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to joining the firm, Melissa completed a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University. Her graduate work focused on examining signaling events involved during the patterning of tissues to generate complex organs and helped define specific roles for Notch signaling in both cardiogenesis and nephrogenesis.

ZIMET STRICK | ABBVIE HEAD OF IMMUNOLOGY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & ACQUISITIONS

Rachel currently leads the Immunology Business Development and Acquisitions (BD&A) at AbbVie, from strategy development through deal execution for this core therapeutic area. She also oversees the company’s BD&A in AI/ML-Enabled Drug Discovery and its China Partnering Center of Excellence. Her previous deal experience has included oncology, virology, women’s health and other specialty disease areas. She has represented AbbVie across a wide spectrum of both inbound and outbound deal structures, including licenses, options, acquisitions/ divestitures, alliances and other collaborations. She has completed deals with public companies, privately held start-ups and academic institutions. In addition to her deal work, Rachel enjoys mentoring and managing junior talent, and oversees AbbVie’s Strategy Leadership Program, a two-year apprenticeship with rotations spanning four discrete functions across the Corporate Strategy Office.

Rachel joined Abbott/AbbVie in 2009 as part of the Commercial Management Development Program, holding various roles in Sales and Marketing. She later worked on AbbVie’s separation from Abbott and various post-merger integrations, including that of Pharmacyclics while serving as Director of AbbVie’s Transition Office. Rachel joined the Business Development and Acquisitions team at the end of 2015. Prior to joining Abbott/AbbVie, she was a strategic management consultant for firms including BCG.

Rachel attended Stanford University, where she earned both an MBA from the Graduate School of Business and an M.A. from the Center for East Asian Studies. Her undergraduate degree is from Brown University, in Engineering and East Asian Studies.

Our From the Boardroom panels typically run 70 minutes in length, ending with an open Q&A session with the audience. We invite you to join us for a networking cocktail hour immediately following the program.

RACHEL

ROPES & GRAY PRESENTS FROM THE BOARDROOM

GLOBAL HEALTHCARE AND LIFE SCIENCES

Ropes & Gray’s healthcare and life sciences 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 enterprises 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 China regulatory specialists, we focus on developing cutting-edge solutions to help clients meet their business goals.

WHERE WE EXCEL FOR

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

OUR CLIENTS

Our life sciences M&A team has represented clients in many large, high-profile mergers and acquisitions. Unique to our team is our ability to handle an entire transaction under one roof, calling upon experts in our IP, healthcare and FDA regulatory, antitrust, labor and employment and tax groups to conduct due diligence and provide advice on various issues that arise during transactions.

LICENSING, COLLABORATIONS & JOINT VENTURES

We represent life sciences and healthcare companies in structuring and negotiating commercial agreements involving licensing, co-marketing, co-promotion, distribution and other arrangements.

CAPITAL MARKETS

We have extensive experience representing life sciences corporate issuers, major investment banks, and leading private equity firms in all aspects of capital markets financings.

PRIVATE EQUITY

We have one of the leading, and most robust, private equity practices in the world. Together with our globally renowned life sciences and healthcare team, we are uniquely positioned to help private equity investors thrive in the many types of industry deals and investments taking place around the world.

VENTURE CAPITAL & EMERGING COMPANIES

We advise life sciences venture capital investors throughout the lifecycle of their investments. From negotiating and closing seed financings to assisting growth stage investors in developing successful portfolio companies and structures, we have the experience to support clients from the time of initial investment through their ultimate exit. We are proud to be alongside emerging growth companies through all phases of their lifecycles.

BUSINESS RESTRUCTURING

Our business restructuring team provides life sciences and healthcare clients with creative strategies and practical solutions for addressing the challenges of financial distress and insolvency.

PRIVACY & CYBERSECURITY

We help life sciences industry clients manage issues and matters involving privacy and cybersecurity law by counseling on privacy and cybersecurity compliance as well as incident prevention and response. We also advise on the privacy and cybersecurity risks in corporate transactions and provide representation in litigation and regulatory investigations arising from cyber incidents and alleged privacy violations.

ANTITRUST

We represent life sciences companies before the FTC, U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies. We also advise in connection with nonpublic government investigations and represent plaintiffs and defendants in litigating cutting-edge issues.

HEALTHCARE & FDA REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

As a true healthcare and life sciences firm, we have made a long-term investment in building out a global team of top healthcare and FDA regulatory subject matter experts. We know the ins and outs of regulatory risks, cross-border compliance and enforcement.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Our IP professionals evaluate third-party IP and provide opinions, perform due diligence, conduct portfolio assessments, develop domestic and international patent strategies, prepare and evaluate IP-related securities disclosures, advise on licensing and collaboration transactions, and deliver litigation services to global life sciences companies.

SECURITIES LITIGATION & ENFORCEMENT

Our litigators have defended numerous securities fraud claims, including those related to regulatory disclosures.

GOVERNMENT ENFORCEMENT

We have a long, successful track record of partnering with life sciences companies and other organizations on the full spectrum of internal investigations and white collar enforcement matters.

TAX BENEFITS & EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

Our tax and executive compensation teams provide comprehensive advice related to aspects of mergers and acquisitions and business restructurings, joint ventures, tax planning and tax controversies.

REAL ESTATE

Our real estate team has a unique understanding of our life sciences clients’ needs around R&D and manufacturing, as well as the challenges that arise in developing, leasing, acquiring, structuring, financing, owning and operating real estate for life sciences use.

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS AND RESOURCES

Ropes & Gray continually provides informed perspective on global, regional, industry-specific and practice-focused legal issues. Refer to the links below to access our recent insights.

CAPITAL INSIGHTS

On this site, Ropes & Gray offers its insights into some of the most noteworthy issues and perspectives on the Biden administration. Learn more

COVID-19 RESOURCE CENTER

Stay up-to-date on best practices, legal considerations, and maintaining the health and safety of your employees. Learn more

DIGITAL HEALTH

Ropes & Gray offers the resources of a multidisciplinary team that can advise you on the most critical areas related to operating in the digital health market. Our practice strengths in such a broad range of key areas enable us to help digital companies at each stage of their experience. Learn more

DRUG PRICING & PRICE REPORTING

Drawing on deep knowledge of all areas of drug pricing regulation, Ropes & Gray’s cross-practice drug pricing team provides life sciences enterprises with strategic business and legal advice on existing and proposed government approaches to prescription drug pricing and price reporting. Learn more

ENFORCEMENT EXPRESS

Stay on top of corruption risks and enforcement environments worldwide. This microsite offers interactive access to regularly updated profiles of more than 40 countries worldwide, plus articles, webinars, videos, podcasts and more. Learn more

GLOBAL HEALTH CARE COMPLIANCE

Collaborating across practices and geographies, our team has benchmarked and implemented global compliance programs for many leading companies. Our lawyers and professionals are fluent in 42 languages. We also partner with law firms on six continents. Learn more

VALUE-BASED HEALTH CARE

On this online hub, Ropes & Gray offers articles, webinars, research materials and other valuable resources dedicated to value-based health care, all organized by industry segments and topics. Learn more

ROPES & GRAY GLOBAL HEALTHCARE AND LIFE SCIENCES LEADERSHIP

DEBBIE GERSH | PARTNER, CHICAGO

HEALTHCARE REGULATORY & TRANSACTIONS

deborah.gersh@ropesgray.com +1 312 845 1307

ANDREW O’CONNOR | PARTNER, BOSTON

GOVERNMENT ENFORCEMENT & WHITE COLLAR andrew.oconnor@ropesgray.com +1 617 235 4650

MARC RUBENSTEIN | PARTNER, BOSTON

LIFE SCIENCES STRATEGIC TRANSACTIONS

marc.rubenstein@ropesgray.com +1 617 951 7826

Named “2022 Corporate Department of the YearHealth Care/Pharmaceuticals” – American Lawyer

Named “2021, 2020 & 2019 Healthcare Practice Group of the Year” – Law 360

Named “2022 Pharma & Biotech Law Firm of the Year” and “2020 Healthcare, Pharma & Biotech Law Firm of the Year” – The Deal

Ranked Band 1 for “Healthcare” in MA & NY & “SPACs” nationwide, highly ranked for “Life Sciences Regulatory / Compliance” and “Life Sciences” in CA in 2022 – Chambers USA

Named “2021 Healthcare Firm of the Year” – Chambers USA

Advised three of the top five, and seven of the top 15 biopharmaceutical licensing deals measured by deal value in 2020 – Fierce Biotech

Named “2022 Life Cycle Firm of the Year,” “2022 M&A Firm of the Year,” “2021 Licensing & Collaboration Firm of the Year” and awarded “2021 Impact of the Deal of the Year” – LMG Life Sciences Awards

COMING SOON WEBINAR: VIEWING THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT THROUGH A TRANSACTIONAL LENS –THE IRA’S IMPACT ON DEAL TERMS

Thursday, February 2nd at 12:30–1:30 pm ET

In an upcoming webinar, David McIntosh, a partner in Ropes & Gray’s life sciences transactions practice, and Margaux Hall, a partner in the firm’s health care practice and drug pricing expert, explore the ramifications of the Inflation Reduction Act drug pricing provisions on deal terms in licensing, collaboration, and M&A transactions. Together, they review the Act’s impact through a transactional lens, focusing on the law’s observed and predicted effects on contract terms related to economics and drug development.

If you would like to register, please email RGEvents@ropesgray.com.

SCIENCES TRANSACTIONS

DAVID MCINTOSH | ROPES & GRAY PARTNER, LIFE

MARGAUX HALL | ROPES & GRAY PARTNER, HEALTH CARE

ROPES & GRAY PRESENTS FROM THE BOARDROOM