Amanda F. Austin

Partner

amanda-austin
  • JD, Harvard Law School, 2005
  • AB (Government), cum laude, Harvard University, 2002

Qualifications

  • Massachusetts, 2005
  • Managing IP Americas Awards “IP Transactions Firm of the Year” (2023)
  • LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards “Impact Deal of the Year,” for advising Pfizer in $11.6 billion acquisition of Biohaven Pharmaceuticals (2022)
  • LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards “M&A Firm of the Year” (2022)
  • Legal 500

Amanda F. Austin

Partner

Life sciences clients of all types rely on Amanda Austin to guide them through an array of complex intellectual property transactions occurring at the leading edge of the life sciences industry. 

Amanda is a “go-to” transactions advisor for a broad range of clients. Multinational pharmaceutical giants, medical device and biotechnology companies, startups and early-stage enterprises, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions all turn to her for representation and counsel in transactions critical to their business and mission, including cross-border deals. 

Amanda’s practice encompasses the full range of life sciences transactions, including: 

  • Licensing agreements
  • Research and development collaboration agreements
  • Strategic commercial partnerships
  • Joint ventures
  • Co-promotion agreements
  • Distribution and manufacturing arrangements 

The unique breadth of her client base and experience enables Amanda to provide sophisticated strategic counsel on transactions involving many of the life sciences industry’s most important emerging technologies, including CRISPR, precision medicine, base and gene editing, synthetic biology, and biologics.

Experience

Licensing and Collaborations; Commercial Arrangements

  • Pfizer Inc. in a $1.24 billion dollar ex-U.S. strategic collaboration agreement with Biohaven Pharmaceutical Company to commercialize rimegepant, a therapy approved in the U.S. as Nurtec ODT for the acute treatment of migraine attacks and the preventative treatment of episodic migraines.  
  • A global biopharmaceutical company in its collaboration, option and license agreement with a clinical stage biotechnology company to research and develop a vaccine-based immunotherapy for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
  • A global biopharmaceutical company on a number of transactions, including a global strategic collaboration to discover, develop and commercialize a pipeline of innovative small molecule therapeutics against certain oncology and immunology targets and an exclusive worldwide option and license agreement for a costimulation antagonist for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
  • Provention Bio in a strategic collaboration with a subsidiary of Huadong Medicine to develop and commercialize PRV-3279, a bispecific antibody-based molecule in China.
  • Ginkgo Bioworks in a number of transactions, including a strategic partnership with Aldevron to optimize production of vaccinia capping enzymes (VCE), and a partnership with Berkeley Lights to use BLI's optofluidic platform in Ginkgo's genetic engineering foundries.
  • Paratek Pharmaceuticals, including in its license agreement with Almirall for the development and commercialization of SEYSARA® in the US and China.
  • Beam Therapeutics in connection with its licenses from Editas Medicine and the Broad Institute.
  • Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in its commercial licensing agreement with AstraZeneca for the U.S. rights to Zurampic, an FDA-approved treatment for hyperuricemia.
  • A leading global biotechnology company in a $300 million joint venture to develop and market biosimilars with a Korea-based company.
  • Multiple clients, including a nonprofit institution and a leading pharmaceutical company, with the development of licensing templates for internal use.

IP/Licensing Structuring in Asset Contributions/Divestitures

  • Asklepios BioPharmaceutical (AskBio), a biopharmaceutical gene therapy company, in its acquisition by Bayer AG.
  • Pfizer, including in its acquisition of Trillium Therapeutics, its contribution of assets related to allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy to Allogene Therapeutics, and in Pfizer’s option to acquire AM-Pharma, a private company focused on the development of recombinant human Alkaline Phosphatase (recAP) for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
  • Gilead Sciences, including in its exclusive option to acquire Pionyr Immunotherapeutics Inc. and its exclusive option to acquire Tizona Therapeutics, Inc.
  • Becton Dickinson in a number of transactions, including its acquisition of Cubex and its divestiture of its advanced bioprocessing business to ThermoFisher.
  • A public university in the sale of a portion of its royalty interest in an orphan drug.

Publications

  • JD, Harvard Law School, 2005
  • AB (Government), cum laude, Harvard University, 2002

Qualifications

  • Massachusetts, 2005
  • Managing IP Americas Awards “IP Transactions Firm of the Year” (2023)
  • LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards “Impact Deal of the Year,” for advising Pfizer in $11.6 billion acquisition of Biohaven Pharmaceuticals (2022)
  • LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards “M&A Firm of the Year” (2022)
  • Legal 500

Ropes & Gray Advises ImmunoGen in Multi-Target License and Option Agreement with ImmunoBiochem

Ropes & Gray represented ImmunoGen, Inc., a leader in the field of antibody-drug conjugates for cancer treatment, in a multi-target license and option agreement to research novel, first-in-class ADCs with ImmunoBiochem Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, on ...

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