Life Sciences & Healthcare

Life Sciences & Healthcare

Our clients range from investors, start-up companies and large and medium-sized businesses, to universities and research institutions and emerging biotechnology ventures.

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Our team includes Corporate/M&A, Regulatory and Compliance, Capital Markets, Antitrust/Competition, Environmental and Intellectual Property lawyers and lawyers with scientific background.

Experience

We advise on:

• Mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and flotations
• Commercial agreements including licensing, collaboration and research and development
• Strategies for managing and commercialising patent and trade mark portfolios
• Cross-border litigation and international strategies
• Specialist areas such as tax and environment and have experience in dealing with competition issues arising out of transactions from licences to mergers

Our Highlights in the sector includes advising:

• Actelion Ltd in one of the largest European M&A deals of the past 20 years. NKF devised and implemented a dual deal structure consisting of the USD 30 billion takeover of Actelion by Johnson & Johnson and the demerger and spin-off to shareholders of Idorsia Ltd which comprised Actelion’s drug discovery and early clinical development business
• GSK in the GSK-Novartis asset swap (Vaccines, Oncology) and joint venture (Consumer Healthcare) transaction
• Advisor to International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) on the sale of CordenPharma to European private equity firm Astorg
• Swiss counsel to A.P. Møller Holding A/S on the acquisition of Unilabs from funds advised by Apax Partners LLP
• Medacta Group SA, an international orthopaedics company specialising in the design and production of innovative orthopaedic products and the development of accompanying surgical techniques, in connection with the launch of its IPO
• Advisor to the banking syndicate in connection with the initial public offering of VectivBio Holding AG and the listing of its shares on Nasdaq
• Counsel to the arrangers on the financing of Bain and Cinven for the acquisition of Lonza’s Specialty Ingredients business and operations for an enterprise value of CHF 4.2 billion
• Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, a leading global bioscience company listed on OMX, on its agreement with Lonza AG, a leading pharma contract manufacturing company listed on SIX, to establish a 50/50 joint venture to pioneer the live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) industry and position themselves as the leading contract development and manufacturing partner (CDMO) for biotech and pharma customers
• Idorsia Ltd in its USD 550 mio capital raising
• Boston Scientific in its acquisition of Swiss based Symetis
• BioTelemetry, Inc. in its successful competing tender and exchange offer for SIX listed med tech company LifeWatch AG
• Actelion Ltd in its successful defense against the proxy fight and hostile takeover attempt of Elliott Associates and other activist firms