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Georgina Suzuki

Georgina Jones Suzuki

Counsel
Areas of Practice
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Georgina Jones Suzuki is a strategic IP transactions attorney with a practice at the intersection of life sciences and technology. These transactions include technology licensing and transfer, collaborations, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, supply and distribution arrangements, royalty monetizations, and other strategic agreements. Her clients include public and private companies, academic institutions and investors, including global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and leading private equity funds. Georgina’s breadth of experience working with both life science and technology companies, as well as her secondment with a global pharmaceutical company, also enables her to advise clients in the digital health space (including on data, machine learning and artificial intelligence). 

In addition, Georgina is a passionate advocate on health and immigration pro bono matters; her pro bono clients include RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association and various U visa clients. 

Experience

Life Science Collaborations and Licensing

  • Regularly represents Johnson & Johnson, Gilead Sciences and other pharmaceutical companies in connection with numerous strategic collaboration agreements with biotechnology companies.
  • Represented Gilead Sciences in licensing and collaboration matters in connection with its exclusive option to acquire Pionyr Immunotherapeutics Inc.
  • Represented Roivant Sciences on the foundational license for a TL1A directed antibody from Pfizer to Telavant, a Roivant company focused on the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Roche subsequently purchased Telavant for $7.1 billion upfront plus contingent consideration.
  • Represented Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited in a collaboration and license agreement worth up to $900M with Turnstone Biologics directed towards the development and commercialization of a leading oncolytic candidate.
  • Advised Bain Capital on IP matters in connection with its formation of Cerevel Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing drug candidates to treat disorders of the central nervous system. Counseled Bain on the contribution of pre-commercial neuroscience assets to Cerevel by Pfizer Inc.
  • Represented a leading biopharmaceutical company in a multi-target option and collaboration agreement with potential payments over $2 billion with Nurix Therapeutics to discover targeted protein degradation drugs for the treatment of cancer using Nurix’s proprietary platform involving E3 ligases that induce degradation of drug targets. The licensee has the option to exclusively license drug candidates from each target program, with Nurix retaining the option for a profit share and a co-promotion arrangement in the United States.
  • Represented a leading pharmaceutical company in a strategic collaboration to identify biomarkers associated with clinical response in up to five pipeline compounds in inflammation, fibrosis and other diseases, and to identify potential new targets and drug candidates for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
  • Represented a leading pharmaceutical company in a collaboration and license agreement with a Belgium research university to develop potential treatments for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection.
  • Represented a leading pharmaceutical company in an exclusive worldwide license and collaboration agreement with potential payments over $400 million with a biotechnology company to develop and commercialize the licensor’s leading gene therapy product candidates, together with additional pipeline candidates, for the treatment of inherited retinal diseases.

Digital Health Transactions

  • Regularly represents many digital health companies pioneering innovative technology including artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, next‑generation sequencing, and biomedical engineering including Johnson & Johnson, TRex Bio, Prellis Biologics, NeoGenomics and others.
  • Represented Genesis Therapeutics, a Stanford University spin-out company with a focus on artificial intelligence, in a multi-target collaboration (based on using Genesis’s AI-driven drug discovery platform to identity new drug candidates) with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.
  • Represented Atomwise, an artificial intelligence-based drug discovery company, in a partnership with GC Pharma to discover and develop novel hemophilia therapies.
  • Represents Iterative Scopes, a growing leader and pioneer in computational gastroenterology, on licensing matters for use of its artificial intelligence precision medicine platform that leverages advanced machine learning and computer vision to interpret endoscopic images and other data.
  • Advised a leading research institution on a complex cross-border deal involving human genomic data.

Life Science and Health Care Strategic Transactions

  • Advised TPG on intellectual property matters in its $2 billion sale of Immucor, Inc., which has a global presence in transfusion and transplant in vitro diagnostics, to Werfen.
  • Represented a consortium led by Silversmith Capital Partners and Health Velocity Capital in a majority investment in Fortified Health Security, a managed security services provider to the health care industry.
  • Represented Patient Square Capital on IP matters in various strategic investments, including its investment in hearing loss medical device company Eargo, Inc.

Royalty Financings

  • Counseled various biotechnology companies on royalty financing transactions (including traditional royalty sales and synthetic royalties).

Supply and Commercial Transactions

  • Advised National Resilience, Inc., a biopharmaceutical manufacturing specialist, in a strategic alliance (including licensing and supply arrangements) with bluebird bio, Inc., to accelerate the research, development and delivery of cell therapies.
  • Represented Juno Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company acquired by Celgene/BMS, in connection with multiple clinical supply and IP licensing agreements involving the company’s cancer immunotherapy products.
  • Advised Northwell Health, New York’s largest health care provider, on the licensing of 3D print files for purposes of making adapters for ventilators to alleviate the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Represented Qorvo, a leading semiconductor company, and Qorvo Biotechnologies, its affiliate developing a point-of-care (POC) diagnostic test platform, on various supply arrangements.

Strategic Technology, Media & Telecommunications Transactions

  • Counseled on IP matters in connection with a high-profile, multi-billion dollar investment in a leading autonomous vehicle company.
  • Represented TPG Capital in its investment in DirecTV with AT&T Inc.
  • Advised Atlantic Media on copyright, fair use, First Amendment and other intellectual property matters in connection with the acquisition of a majority ownership stake in The Atlantic by the Emerson Collective, founded and run by Laurene Powell Jobs. Also counseled Atlantic Media on IP matters related to its sale of Quartz to Uzabase.
  • Counseled Rovi Corporation on intellectual property matters related to its $1.1 billion acquisition of TiVo Corporation.
  • Represented TPG Capital in connection with its acquisition of Wind River Systems, Inc., a world leader in embedded software for intelligent connected systems, from Intel Corporation.
  • Represented an electronic health records company on a $550 million services agreement regarding its software-as-a-service offerings and data licenses.
  • Counseled Toast, Inc., a cloud-based restaurant software company, on complex software arrangements and its acquisition of human resources and payroll software company StratEx.
  • Drafted settlement agreements for companies involved in complex and global patent litigation, including Veeco Instruments in its prior litigation with SGL Carbon and Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC).

Areas of Practice