Four US firms lead on Pfizer's multibillion-dollar acquisition of cancer drug maker
Wachtell, Ropes, Davis Polk and Cooley take roles on $14bn deal
August 23, 2016 at 05:30 AM
2 minute read
A quartet of US law firms are advising on a $14bn (£10.6bn) deal that will see pharmaceutical giant Pfizer acquire cancer drug maker Medivation.
The deal comes four months after new rules adopted by the US Department of the Treasury foiled Pfizer's plans to acquire Allergan in a $160bn (£121bn) tax inversion deal.
Ropes & Gray, a longstanding adviser to Pfizer, has once again taken the lead role for the the pharma giant, with a team led by M&A partner Christopher Comeau in New York.
Comeau is working with securities and public companies partner Paul Kinsella, tax partner David Saltzman, benefits partners Renata Ferrari and Jennifer Rikoski, corporate and shareholder litigation co-head Peter Welsh, government enforcement co-chair Joshua Levy and partner Alexandre Rene, and real estate partner Peter Alpert..
Ropes also represented Pfizer last year on its $17bn (£13bn) purchase of injectable drug giant Hospira, as well as Pfizer's $130m (£99m) purchase of meningitis vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and the acquisition of an $87m (£66m) minority interest in Dutch biopharma firm AM-Pharma.
Medivation, meanwhile, turned to Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Wachtell, which took the lead for Pfizer on its failed bid for Allergan, is fielding a team led by corporate partners Daniel Neff, Trevor Norwitz, Mark Gordon, Gregory Ostling and Ronald Chen.
Cooley M&A partner Jamie Leigh, who three years ago joined the firm's San Francisco office from Latham & Watkins, is leading a team of lawyers including representatives from the firm's corporate, life sciences, litigation, antitrust, employment, regulatory and tax practices.
A year ago this month, Cooley sat across the table from Medivation in its role advising BioMarin Pharmaceutical on the $570m (£433m) sale of its rights to talazoparib, a treatment for breast cancer. Earlier this year, Cooley and Wachtell also lined up for Medivation as the company spurned a $9.3bn (£7bn) takeover offer from French drug giant Sanofi.
Alan Denenberg, a corporate partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell who for the past three years has served as head of the firm's office in Silicon Valley, is advising JP Morgan Securities as financial adviser to Medivation on the sale.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllBig Law Leaders, Dealmakers Optimistic about M&A Deal Flow Under Trump, With Caveats
5 minute readThe Law Firms Generating 8-Figure Fees on the Year's Big Ticket UK Deals
3 minute read'Significant' Competition Concerns Over £762M GXO Logistics-Wincanton Merger
Trending Stories
- 1How I Made Partner: 'Develop a Practice Area You Really Care About ,' Says Jennifer Gniady of Stradley Ronon
- 2Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani Indicted in Brooklyn for Alleged Orchestration of $250 Million Bribery Plot
- 3St. Ivo: Patron Saint of Lawyers
- 4Eagle Pharma Founder Sues Company to Recoup Cost of SEC Investigation
- 5GC Conference Takeaways: Picking AI Vendors 'a Bit of a Crap Shoot,' Beware of Internal Investigation 'Scope Creep'
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250