Life Sciences Corporate Partnering and Licensing

Cooley advised Nykode Therapeutics in its license and collaboration agreement with Regeneron for the discovery, development and commercialization of potential new vaccines for cancer and infectious diseases. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Nykode Therapeutics will receive a $30 million upfront payment and a $20 million equity investment at a premium of 20% on a 30-day volume weighted average price of the Nykode Therapeutics share for the last 30 trading days before the effective date of the agreement. Additionally, Nykode Therapeutics will potentially be eligible to receive more than $875 million in milestone payments, plus high single-digit to low double-digit tiered royalties on sales of commercialized products arising from the collaboration, bringing the total potential value of the agreement to more than $925 million, plus royalties.

Lawyers Ken Krisko, Christophe Beauduin, John Forrest, Marya Postner and Hajra Nashin led the Cooley team advising Nykode. 

We represented Neurocrine Biosciences in its strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with Sosei Heptares to develop novel muscarinic receptor agonists, which Neurocrine Biosciences intends to study in the treatment of schizophrenia, dementia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Under the terms of the agreement, Neurocrine Biosciences gains development and commercialization rights to a broad portfolio of novel clinical and preclinical subtype-selective muscarinic M4, M1 and dual M1/M4 receptor agonists discovered by Sosei Heptares in development for the treatment of major neurological disorders. Sosei Heptares received a total of $100 million in upfront cash and is eligible to receive up to approximately $1.5 billion related to the successful progression of licensed candidates through to regulatory approval. Sosei Heptares is also eligible to receive up to $1.1 billion upon achieving certain global sales milestones of any products developed under the partnership and is eligible to receive tiered royalties ranging from high single digit to mid-teen percentage on future net sales.

Lawyers Kay Chandler and Rena Kaminsky led the Cooley team advising Neurocrine.

Cooley advised Zai Lab on its exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Blueprint Medicines for the development and commercialization of BLU-945 and BLU-701 for the treatment of patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) -driven non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Greater China, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. 
 
Under the terms of the agreement, Blueprint Medicines will receive an upfront cash payment of $25 million and will be eligible to receive up to $590 million in potential development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments, and tiered royalties on a product-by-product basis ranging from the low-teens to mid-teens on annual net sales of BLU-945 and BLU-701 in Greater China, subject to adjustment in specified circumstances. In addition, Zai Lab will be responsible for all the development costs for BLU-945 and BLU-701 occurring in Greater China and will receive the rights to develop and exclusively commercialize BLU-945 and BLU-701 in the region.
 
Lawyers Lila Hope and Jennifer Raab led the Cooley team advising Zai Lab.