About
Drawing on her deep industry experience, Andrea advises life sciences companies and investors on their most strategically important deals. She works with companies at every stage of development, and her broad transactional practice spans complex licensing and collaboration agreements, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, minority equity investments, commercial agreements, and other strategic transactions. She counsels clients on structuring and negotiating these matters and on the legal and operational implications throughout their lifecycle.
Prior to joining Freshfields, Andrea most recently served as Head of Strategic Transactions for a life sciences venture firm that creates and builds innovative companies, where she advised both the fund and its portfolio companies. She previously held senior legal roles at two major global public biopharmaceutical companies, including as Senior Associate General Counsel and Co-Head of the Legal Transactions Team. Andrea’s experience embedded within life sciences organizations brings a practical, commercial perspective to her advice.
Andrea began her legal career as an associate at two leading international law firms, where she focused on life sciences transactions.
Connect
VCARD
- AbbVie on multiple transactions, including:
- its spin-out acquisition of Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ lead Phase 2 investigational candidate, bretisilocin, for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder for up to $1.2 billion;
- its option-to-license agreement with Simcere Zaiming to develop SIM0500, a Phase 1 novel trispecific antibody candidate in multiple myeloma, with potential option fees and milestone payments of up to $1.055 billion;
- its multi-year collaboration with Tentarix Biotherapeutics to discover and develop conditionally active, multi-specific biologic candidates leveraging Tentarix’s proprietary platform in oncology and immunology for upfront option payments totaling $64 million; and
- its strategic collaboration with Umoja Biopharma to develop novel in situ CAR-T cell therapies using Umoja’s proprietary platform for upfront payments and an equity investment, with up to $1.44 billion in aggregate potential option exercise fees and milestone payments.
- AbbVie Ventures on various minority equity investments, including:
- its participation in Zag Bio’s $80 million Series A financing; and
- its participation in DISCO Pharmaceuticals’ initial €20 million seed financing.
- AstraZeneca on its $2 billion strategic equity investment and clinical collaboration with Summit Therapeutics to advance leading ADC combination strategy in cancer.
- Sanofi on multiple transactions, including:
- its exclusive collaboration with Seagen to design, develop, and commercialize antibody-drug conjugates for up to three oncology targets;
- its license agreement with Eureka Therapeutics and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for the non-CAR use of a novel GPRC5D binder with potential utility in treating multiple myeloma, for an upfront payment and up to $1 billion+ in milestone payments;
- its global strategic collaboration with Nurix Therapeutics to discover, develop, and commercialize novel targeted protein degradation drugs utilizing Nurix’s proprietary platform and portfolio of E3 ligases across multiple therapeutic areas, for an upfront payment of $55 million, target expansion payments, and up to $2.5 billion in total milestone payments; and
- its exclusive worldwide partnership with Revolution Medicines to develop and commercialize targeted cancer therapies based on SHP2 biology for patients with non-small cell lung cancer and other cancers carrying certain mutations, for an upfront fee of $50 million and up to $500 million+ in potential milestone payments.
- Sanofi Ventures on various minority equity investments, including:
- its participation in Q32 Bio’s $60 million Series B financing.
*This deal list includes work Andrea completed prior to joining Freshfields.
Andrea Devoe
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