Christophe Beauduin

Cooley advised Avid Bioservices (Nasdaq: CDMO), a dedicated biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) working to improve patient lives by providing high quality development and manufacturing services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, on its definitive merger agreement to be acquired by funds managed by GHO Capital Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.1 billion.

Cooley advised Lexeo Therapeutics, a clinical-stage gene therapy company advancing gene therapy candidates for genetically defined cardiovascular diseases and a genetically defined subgroup of Alzheimer’s disease, on its approximately $100 million initial public offering.

Cooley advised Beam Therapeutics, a biotechnology company committed to establishing the leading, fully integrated platform for precision genetic medicines, on its agreement with Verve Therapeutics to sell its opt-in rights to co-develop and co-commercialize base-editing programs for cardiovascular disease to Eli Lilly and Company.

Boston – April 4, 2023 – Cooley advised Scorpion Therapeutics on its exclusive license agreement with Pierre Fabre to co-develop and commercialize STX-721 and STX-241. Lawyers Christophe Beauduin, Carly Robinson, Michael Klein, Evan Lazerowitz and Aaron Pomeroy led the Cooley team.

The exclusive collaboration and license agreement granted Pierre Fabre a royalty-bearing license to develop and commercialize STX-721 and STX-241, two next-generation mutant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors for patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. Scorpion will lead clinical development of STX-721, and Pierre Fabre will lead clinical development of STX-241. Scorpion will retain commercialization rights to STX-721 and STX-241 in the US, Canada and Japan, while Pierre Fabre will be responsible for commercialization activities in all other territories – with a focus on Europe and China.

Under the terms of the agreement, Scorpion will receive a combined $65 million from an upfront payment and achievement of near-term milestones – and will be eligible to receive up to a total of $553 million in potential milestone payments. In addition, Pierre Fabre will pay Scorpion tiered percentage royalties on a licensed product-by-licensed product basis, ranging from mid-single to mid-teens based on annual net sales of each licensed product in territories excluding the US, Canada and Japan. Scorpion will pay Pierre Fabre tiered percentage royalties based on a licensed product-by-licensed product basis, ranging from low-single to low-double digits on annual net sales of each licensed product in the US. The companies will share global development expenses based on a pre-specified cost-sharing arrangement.

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Cooley advised CinCor Pharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, on its definitive agreement to be acquired by AstraZeneca. M&A partners Rama Padmanabhan and Rowook Park and corporate partners Div Gupta and Sarah Sellers led the Cooley team.