How big is our practice group?
Over 100 professionals.

Amanda Austin (Harvard Law School '05) is involved with biotech and pharmaceutical companies in connection with various licensing and corporate partnering transactions.

What do we do?
Ropes & Gray's Life Sciences Practice Group is one of the leading life sciences practices in the nation (Ranked in Band 1 – National, according to the 2007 & 2008 editions of Chambers USA and recognized as a leading international practice in the 2008 & 2009 editions of Chambers Global), serving a full range of legal needs of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies and research institutes, including financings, IPOs, licensing, M&A, patent due diligence, prosecution and litigation, FDA regulatory, research compliance, reimbursement, health care compliance and government enforcement defense. Our multi-disciplinary team of over 100 life sciences lawyers and technical specialists, working together in coordinated fashion, have the expertise and experience to successfully resolve virtually any legal problem facing life sciences companies.

• In 2008, we advised Genzyme in connection with the negotiation and drafting of a major strategic alliance with Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in which Genzyme will develop and commercialize mipomersen, Isis' potential blockbuster lipid-lowering treatment for high risk cardiovascular patients that utilizes novel antisense technology. As part of the strategic relationship, Genzyme also received preferred access to future Isis drugs for CNS and certain rare diseases. Genzyme paid Isis $150 million to purchase five million shares of Isis common stock for $30 per share.  Genzyme also paid Isis a $175 million up-front mipomersen license fee. In addition to this initial $325 million, Isis has the potential to receive significant milestone payments for mipomersen, which is currently in phase 3 trials. Once the product is launched, the two companies will share profits. Isis committed to provide $125 million of development funding for mipomersen. Thereafter Isis and Genzyme will share development costs equally. The initial Isis development funding commitment and the shared funding will end when the program is profitable.
• In 2007 we represented Genzyme in the $345 million acquisition of Bioenvision, through which Genzyme gained exclusive, worldwide rights to clofarabine, a cancer therapeutic currently approved for relapsed and refractory pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients. Ropes & Gray also recently represented Genzyme in its $584 million acquisition of AnorMED — the first hostile tender offer ever completed in the biotech industry — through which Genzyme acquired Mozibil, a promising new product candidate for stem cell transplantation. For a description of the associate’s role in this transaction click here.
• In 2008 we represented Bayer in its spin-off of cancer compounds to ACT Biotech, a start-up biotechnology company financed and controlled by NGN Capital, a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Heidelberg, Germany. Bayer retained an equity stake in ACT Biotech and investor rights on a par with those held by the venture capital investors. In addition to an asset purchase agreement conveying title to certain assets, Bayer also entered into a license agreement with ACT Biotech granting rights to exploit certain patents retained by Bayer in certain medical fields. For a description of the associate’s role in this transaction click here.
• Ropes & Gray serves as primary outside counsel for Wyeth's Global Business Development Group which is charged with establishing and managing all licensing, partnering and other collaborative relationships covering all third-party technology and intellectual property included in Wyeth's product pipeline and marketed product lines. During 2008, Ropes & Gray advised Wyeth in regard to multiple transactions in the United States, Europe and Asia, involving upfront, milestone and other payments well in excess of $1 billion. Our advice covered a range of transactions, including: multiple pharmaceutical pipeline-building deals with biotech companies such as Advanced Life Sciences and Adlyfe in the United States and Santaris Pharma, Biotica and Elbion in Europe; numerous transactions relating to Wyeth's ongoing collaboration with Élan for the development of Bapineuzumab for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease; consumer product deals such as renegotiation of Wyeth's supply agreement for its Centrum® and Caltrate® nutritional supplement product lines; and negotiation of settlement and license agreements addressing generic challenges to Wyeth's Effexor® product by companies such as Impax Laboratories. We also represented Wyeth in connection with its acquisition of the ThermaCare® line of therapeutic heat wrap products from Proctor & Gamble. In this transaction, Wyeth acquired all of P&G's intellectual property and manufacturing assets dedicated to the ThermaCare® business in exchange for $200 million. We also provide advice to Wyeth on securities law matters and on clinical and regulatory compliance, as well as on patent matters. For a description of the associate’s role in the Santaris transaction click here.
• Ropes & Gray represents Biogen Idec in licensing and collaboration transactions, strategic transactions, securities, corporate and IP matters. In February 2008, we represented Biogen Idec in a $1 billion public bond offering. The bonds are Biogen Idec's senior unsecured obligations and were issued in two tranches, one due 2013 bearing interest at 6% and one due 2018 bearing interest at 6.875%. The bonds were issued by Biogen Idec in part to finance a $3 billion share repurchase affected through an issuer tender offer in the middle of 2007. Biogen Idec's bond offering represents the largest debt offering in the life sciences industry in 2008. Ropes & Gray also acts as worldwide patent counsel for Biogen Idec. During 2008, we acted for Biogen Idec in two interferences in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Both relate to immunotherapeutic agents, the clinical and commercial aspects of which are managed in Biogen Idec's San Diego office. One interference was settled. In the other, judgment was entered in Biogen Idec's favor, the time for appeal has not expired.
• Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat diseases of aging, including metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes. Ropes & Gray has represented Sirtris since its inception and is both corporate and IP counsel to the company and represented the company through several rounds of private financing, in which it raised over $100 million, and when it went public in 2007. In June 2008, we represented Sirtris Pharmaceuticals in connection with its sale to GlaxoSmithKline for approximately $720 million through a cash tender offer of $22.50 per share, an 84% premium over the company's publicly traded stock price of $12.23 per share.  Approximately 97% of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals' outstanding shares were tendered in the offer. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals became part of GlaxoSmithKline's Drug Discovery organization, while continuing to operate from laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts as an autonomous drug discovery unit. Ropes & Gray has been retained by GlaxoSmithKline to continue to serve as patent counsel on Sirtris' acquired patent portfolio.
• In 2008, we represented Pfizer in its license and collaboration agreement with Avant Immunotherapies and Celldex Therapeutics for a therapeutic cancer vaccine drug candidate CDX 110, which is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of brain cancer. The deal involved an upfront payment to Avant of $40 million, a $10 million equity investment in Avant, Pfizer's funding of all development costs and potential milestone payments exceeding $390 million, as well as double-digit royalties on any product sales. We also represented Pfizer on several merger and acquisition and licensing transactions that have not yet closed, as well as a number of confidential regulatory and government enforcement matters.
• FDA Practice: Our regulatory and governmental affairs lawyers regularly provide counsel, representation, and strategic advice to companies subject to food and drug law. Our wide-ranging experience includes representation before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as before grand juries and state and federal courts. For a description of the associate’s role in this work click here.