Ropes & Gray Represents Zai Lab in Novocure Deal

In The News
September 21, 2018

Ropes & Gray represented Zai Lab in its exclusive regional license and collaboration agreement with Novocure. The agreement enables Zai Lab to commercialize Novocure’s oncology platform, Tumor Treating Fields, in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Tumor Treating Fields is currently marketed in the U.S., Japan and European Union for the treatment of glioblastoma. It is in advanced clinical development for the treatment of multiple solid cancer tumors.

Under the agreement, Zai Lab will support enrollment of Chinese patients in certain clinical trials investigating Tumor Treating Fields. The therapy uses electric fields tuned to specific frequencies to disrupt cell division, inhibiting tumor growth and causing affected cancer cells to die.

Zai Lab is a Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, licensing, developing and commercializing proprietary therapeutics for large unmet medical needs in China in areas such as oncology, autoimmune and infectious diseases.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by IP transactions partner Geoffrey Lin and life sciences partner Katherine Wang (both of Shanghai).