Rama Padmanabhan

Rama focuses her practice on all types of public and private M&A and cross-border transactions, with an emphasis on Asia. She has extensive experience with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) M&A transactions, reverse mergers, representation of financial buyers and sellers, joint ventures, navigating initial public offering (IPO)/M&A dual-track processes, and other complex transactions. Rama’s industry experience includes technology, fintech, software, semiconductor, digital health and retail. She is a market leader in life sciences, biotech and medical device transactions, with deep experience in divestitures, options to buy and structured transactions.

Rama was named Dealmaker of the Year in Healthcare, Pharma & Biotech at The Deal’s 2020 Middle Market Awards and was recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Dealmakers in America in 2022 and 2023. She serves on Cooley’s diversity committee, Women’s Initiative Strategy Committee and partnership nominating committee.

Rama’s representative matters include:

Public transactions

• Gracell Biotechnologies’ $1.2 billion sale to AstraZeneca
• Travere Therapeutics’ sale of its bile acid product portfolio to Mirum
• CinCor Pharma’s $1.8 billion sale to AstraZeneca
• Horizon Therapeutics’ $28.3 billion sale to Amgen
• Neogene Therapeutics’ up to $320 million sale to AstraZeneca
• ViaCyte’s $320 million sale to Vertex
• Horizon Therapeutics’ $3.05 billion acquisition of Viela Bio 
• Synthorx’s $2.5 billion sale to Sanofi
• Equillium’s up to $329 million acquisition of Bioniz Therapeutics
• Chimerix’s up to $438 million acquisition of Oncoceutics
• Bionano Genomics’ acquisitions of BioDiscovery and Lineagen
• Travere’s up to $517 million acquisition of Orphan Technologies
• Crown Bioscience’s $400 million sale to JSR Corporation
• Sequenom’s $302 million sale to LabCorp
• Auspex Pharmaceuticals’ $3.5 billion sale to Teva Pharmaceuticals
• Dot Hill Systems’ approximately $700 million sale to Seagate Technology
• Horizon Pharma’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Hyperion Therapeutics
• Volcano Corporation’s $1 billion sale to Royal Philips
• Trius Therapeutics’ $704 million (plus contingent value rights) sale to Cubist Pharmaceuticals
• Ambit Biosciences’ $315 million (plus contingent value rights) sale to Daiichi Sankyo
• Peet’s Coffee & Tea’s $1 billion sale to Joh. A. Benckiser
• Micromet’s $1.16 billion sale to Amgen
• Clinical Data’s $1.2 billion sale to Forest Labs
• Hot Topic’s $600 million sale to Sycamore Partners

Private transactions

• ProfoundBio’s $1.8 billion sale to Genmab
• Radionetics Oncology’s strategic agreement with Eli Lilly
• Veritone’s acquisition of Broadbean
• Prodege’s acquisition of BitBurst
• Tentarix Biotherapeutics’ three multiyear collaborations with Gilead Sciences
• Paidy’s $2.7 billion sale to PayPal
• Qualcomm’s numerous acquisitions
• Prodege’s investment from Great Hill Partners
• Silicon Therapeutics’ $450 million in equity (plus milestones) sale to Roivant Sciences
• Lengo Therapeutics’ up to $465 million sale to Blueprint Medicines
• Biotheranostics’ $230 million sale to Hologic
• Amplyx Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Pfizer
• Syracuse Biopharma’s sale to JW Therapeutics
• JCR Pharmaceuticals’ acquisition of ArmaGen
• Portfolium’s sale to Instructure
• Nikkiso America’s numerous transactions, including the acquisition of Cryogenic Industries
• Protein Sciences’ up to $750 million sale to Sanofi
• Calimmune’s $91 million (plus milestones) sale to CSL Behring

SPAC and reverse merger transactions

• TriSalus Life Sciences’ deSPAC with MedTech Acquisition
• NKGen Biotech’s deSPAC with Graf Acquisition Corp. IV
• FinAccel’s deSPAC with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings II
• Quanergy’s deSPAC with CITIC Capital Acquisition Corp.
• Nuvation Bio’s deSPAC with Panacea Acquisition Corp.
• Immunovant’s deSPAC with Health Sciences Acquisition Corp.
• Palisade Bio’s reverse merger with Seneca Biopharma
• Tocagen’s reverse merger with Forte Biosciences
• Protara Therapeutics’ reverse merger with Proteon
• Vical’s reverse merger with Brickell Biotech
• AmpliPhi Biosciences’ reverse merger with C3J Therapeutics to form Armata Pharmaceuticals
• Arcturus Therapeutics’ reverse merger with Alcobra

Rama has represented numerous private companies in options to be acquired by pharma companies, such as Bayer, Celgene, Janssen, Roche, Takeda and Pfizer. She also represented Arena Pharmaceuticals in its option to acquire Aristea Therapeutics.

Before joining Cooley, Rama was an associate at a US-based international law firm.

Rama’s speaking engagements

• Speaker, “Dealmakers Roundtable: SPACs!,” Cooley webinar, September 24, 2020
• Speaker, “Trends in Life Sciences M&A Dealmaking,” JP Morgan
• Speaker, “Monetize Your Assets Using Structured Transactions,” ChinaBio Partnering Forum, May 2019
• Speaker, “Stories From the Trenches: How to Successfully Execute a Cross-Border M&A Transaction,” ChinaBio Partnering Forum
• Speaker, “Achieving Success with the Build-to Buy Model,” BIO International Convention, June 4, 2018
• Speaker, “Evaluating the Opportunity for a Reverse Merger,” Cooley U at JLABS, January 23, 2018

Rankings and accolades

• Lawdragon: 500 Leading Dealmakers in America (2022, 2023)
• The Deal: Middle Market Awards – Dealmaker of the Year in Healthcare, Pharma & Biotech (2020)