Neena Patil, general counsel with Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Neena Patil, an in-house industry veteran, has become general counsel at Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc.

In her new role overseeing all legal matters for the company, Patil replaces Suzanne Hooper, who, after seven years at the helm of the Jazz legal department, left the company to spend more time on the nonprofessional aspects of her life, including travel and other interests, a company spokesperson told Corporate Counsel in an email.

Patil joins Jazz from Abeona Therapeutics Inc., where she was senior vice president, GC and corporate secretary. Prior to that, she was in-house at Novo Nordisk for more than 10 years, most recently as VP for legal affairs, associate GC and assistant corporate secretary. Earlier in her career, she held in-house roles at Sanofi-Aventis, GPC Biotech and Pfizer Inc., according to her LinkedIn profile.

Jazz develops drugs for treating sleep disorders such as narcolepsy and cancer. It is headquartered in Dublin, but Patil will be based in Philadelphia, she said. The 30-member legal department is spread across several cities in various countries, she added.

Patil said she was attracted to Jazz because it is “well-positioned to continue to grow and expand its business.”

“From my perspective, this was a great opportunity to get in the company at a point where it’s really looking to grow and build off of its prior success,” she said. “At this point in my career, I was really seeking an opportunity at the GC level to come in and be part of a really strong executive team working together to execute on that business strategy.”

Jazz has continued to expand since it merged in January 2012 with Azur Pharma and combined under the name Jazz Pharmaceuticals to create a specialty biopharmaceutical company that develops drugs to treat psychiatric and neurological conditions.

In 2016, it acquired Ewing, New Jersey-based cancer drug maker Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $1.5 billion.

In addition to learning how the legal department can support the business teams, Patil said another priority for her in her new gig is “focusing on the external dynamics.”

“We are watching what is happening in D.C. on the health policy side and looking at how we can support the public affairs team on how to manage some of those uncertainties,” she said.

Patil earned her degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1999, LinkedIn said.