The Week at Ropes & Gray: Deals for Pfizer, BigHand, Alexion, Welsh Carson; Litigation Teams Procure Two Wins; Podcast Series on Risk Management; Webinar on Virtual Currency

Weekly highlights of what’s happening at Ropes & Gray:

• It was a busy week of transactions for our clients. Some highlights include:
• Allogene Therapeutics acquired Pfizer’s portfolio of assets related to allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell. Ropes & Gray advised Pfizer in the transaction.
• BigHand, a leading provider of productivity software to the legal market – and a portfolio company of Bridgepoint – has acquired legal pricing tool DW Reporting. Ropes & Gray advised BigHand on the acquisition.
• Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company focused on serving patients and families affected by rare diseases, announced an agreement to acquire Wilson Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, for approximately $855 million. Ropes & Gray acted as U.S. legal advisor for Alexion in the acquisition.
• Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a leading healthcare investment firm, and Charlotte Radiology have formed US Radiology Specialists, a new venture focused on building the premier physician-owned radiology partnership in the country. Ropes & Gray counseled Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in the formation.
• Litigation teams achieved significant victories this week in the life sciences space. A Ropes & Gray litigation team secured the complete dismissal of a securities class action lawsuit brought against biopharmaceutical company Seres Therapeutics, Inc. and two of the company’s officers. The firm also secured another key victory for Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the complete dismissal of a putative securities class action lawsuit brought against the company in a unanimous decision.
• In the first podcast in our series on challenges and best practices in risk management, litigation & enforcement partner Amanda Raad and ethics and compliance consultant Hui Chen, former Department of Justice compliance counsel, discuss how companies can transform policies into a culture of compliance.
• Coming up next week…  Attend our webinar on Thursday, April 19 for a discussion on mitigating the sanctions, money laundering, and corruption risks posed by Bitcoin and other virtual currency transactions.
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