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Daniel Freshman

Daniel Freshman

Partner
Areas of Practice
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Dan Freshman advises clients on a variety of complex strategic transactions, investments, partnerships, and other corporate matters in the life sciences, consumer & retail, sports, and technology sectors.

As a member of Ropes & Gray’s intellectual property transactions and venture capital & emerging companies practices, as well as the firm’s sports, consumer & retail, and cryptocurrency & blockchain industry initiatives, Dan draws on his breadth of experience to advise on complex transactions across high growth industries. For example, Dan represented clients in 3 of the top 10 largest biopharmaceutical licensing deals of 2020 measured by deal value, according to an analysis published in Fierce Biotech.

Prior to joining Ropes & Gray, Dan worked for the Major League Baseball Players Association in its Licensing & Business Affairs department, and at Canary, a connected home technology company based in New York. In addition, Dan has published articles on the evolving topic of name, image, and likeness (NIL) issues in the sports industry.

Experience

Licenses, Collaborations, and Strategic Alliances

  • Advised Sanofi in:
    • an acquisition of Dren Bio’s bispecific antibody-based program in immunology deal worth up to $1.9 billion; and
    • an exclusive, worldwide license agreement with Maze Therapeutics for MZE001 for the treatment of Pompe Disease, with an upfront of $150M (cash and equity), up to approximately $600M in milestones, and meaningful royalties on sales; and
    • an exclusive worldwide collaboration with Skyhawk Therapeutics for up to more than $2 billion to discover and develop novel small molecules that modulate RNA splicing for challenging oncology and immunology disease targets with limited or no therapeutic options.
  • Advised Novo Nordisk in:
    • expanding its collaboration with Valo Health in a deal worth up to $4.6 billion to discover and develop new treatments using artificial intelligence and real-world patient data to develop up to 20 treatments for obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease;
    • a research collaboration agreement with Flagship Pioneering and Metaphone Biotechnologies, a company designing drugs by combining machine learning and molecular mimicry, to develop up to two next-generation therapeutics for the treatment of obesity.
  • Advised FogPharma in a collaboration with ARTBIO to co-develop new radiopharmaceuticals using FogPharma’s Helicon peptides platform with ARTBIO’s radiopharmaceutical AlphaDirect platform, in an effort to produce a new category of targeted therapy on cancer cells.
  • Advised HilleVax on its exclusive license agreement with Chengdu Kanghua Biological Products Co., Ltd. (Kangh) for rights to Kangh’s hexavalent virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidate for norovirus outside of Greater China.
  • Advised BlueRock Therapeutics in its strategic research and development alliance with FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics to discover and develop off-the-shelf iPS cell therapies for ocular diseases, including dry age-related macular degeneration and inherited retinal diseases.
  • Advised IDRx, clinical stage precision cancer biopharmaceutical company, in licensing transactions with Germany-based Merck KGaA and Blueprint Medicines to secure rights to IDRX-42 and IDRX-73- two small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors which are designed to inhibit the key genetic drivers and drug-resistant mutations of non-PDGFR-driven gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a sarcoma of the GI tract, prior to its sale to GlaxoSmithKline.
  • Advised Takeda Pharmaceuticals in various collaboration and license agreements, including its strategic multi-target partnership with Sosei Heptares to discover, develop and commercialize novel molecules that modulate G protein-coupled receptor targets, and its joint venture with Third Rock Ventures to form Ambys Medicines, a company founded to discover and develop novel cell and gene therapies for liver diseases.

Retail, Consumer, Media, and Sports

  • Advised Sodiaal, France's leading dairy cooperative and owner of the Yoplait yogurt brand, as IP transactions counsel and U.S. M&A counsel in an agreement to acquire General Mills' Canadian yogurt business.
  • Advises the National Association of Basketball Coaches on licensing, sponsorship, and media matters, including in connection with its multimedia rights agreement with sports and entertainment agency Van Wagner.
  • Advised Cordillera Investment Partners in the Professional Triathletes Organisation’s Series C financing.
  • Advised various consumer-facing brands and franchise businesses on intellectual property aspects of whole-business securitizations and follow-on offerings, including European Wax Center, the Goddard School, and Planet Fitness.
  • Advised EQT Private Capital Asia in partnership with Nord Anglia Education in its $1.25 billion acquisition of IMG Academy from Endeavor.
  • 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, a non-profit organization founded and run by Laurene Powell Jobs.
  • Advised TSG Consumer Partners on intellectual property matters in connection with its minority investment in Huda Beauty, a beauty and cosmetics brand founded by beauty blogger and entrepreneur Huda Kattan.

Emerging Companies & Venture Capital

  • Represented The RockCreek Group in co-leading Forge Nano’s $40 million Series D financing, a technology company pioneering domestic battery and semiconductor innovations.
  • Represented the lead investor in Pathos AI’s $365 million Series D financing.
  • Advised Sanofi:
    • in a $25 million strategic equity investment in Suzhou, China-based Adagene, Inc.
    • as co-lead investor in Atalanta Therapeutics’ $97 million Series B financing;
    • in a $25 million concurrent private placement in Immuneering Corporation, alongside Immuneering’s $175 million underwritten public offering;
    • in MapLight Therapeutics’ $372.5 million Series D financing;
    • in a strategic equity investment in Torino, Italy-based Resalis Therapeutics;
    • in a $10 million strategic investment in Stockholm-based Vicore Pharma Holding AB;
    • in a $27 million strategic investment in Ventyx Biosciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing oral therapies for a broad range of inflammatory diseases with significant unmet medical need;
    • in a $40 million strategic investment in Vigil Neuroscience, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Sanofi subsequently acquired Vigil for approximately $470 million;
    • in connection with Toronto-based Zucara Therapeutics’ $20 million Series B financing;
  • Advised Roivant Sciences in the creation of Telavant, a Roivant company focused on the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, with Pfizer Inc. Roche subsequently purchased Telavant for $7.1 billion upfront plus contingent consideration.
  • Advised Philos & Partners SA in connection with its investment in Neurelis, Inc.’s $114 million Series D preferred stock financing.
  • Advised Tmunity Therapeutics, a private clinical-stage biotherapeutics company, in connection with its Series Seed, Series A, and Series B financings, on various ongoing corporate and commercial matters, and in its eventual sale to Kite Pharma.
  • Advises various venture funds and companies in venture financings in the cryptocurrency & blockchain industry, including in connection with token launches and the formation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

Areas of Practice