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Winsome Cheung

Partner

London +44 20 7067 2108

  • About
  • Representative Matters
  • Credentials
  • About

    Winsome Cheung assists life sciences and technology companies to develop and commercialise their intellectual property assets. She advises on their strategic licensing and partnering transactions, and intellectual property and commercial matters throughout the entire product lifecycle.

    Winsome Cheung is a partner in Covington’s life science transactions team.

    She advises a broad range of clients in the life sciences and technology industries, from start-ups, venture capital investors to global pharmaceutical companies. As a former scientist, she combines her scientific understanding with her legal and commercial knowledge to help companies build value and monetise their intellectual property assets.

    Winsome regularly advises on:

    • Complex partnering arrangements, including licensing, collaboration, co-development, co-promotion and other strategic arrangements.
    • Commercial agreements throughout the entire lifecycle of life sciences and technology assets, including CRO, clinical trial, manufacturing and distribution agreements.
    • Intellectual property and commercial matters in relation to corporate transactions and venture investments, including:
      • IP and commercial diligence;
      • Ancillary/transitional agreements; and
      • IP warranties, contingent consideration provisions of share purchase/asset purchase agreements.

    Prior to her legal career, Winsome completed an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Medicine. During her doctoral research, she discovered a novel virus-host cell interaction which led to major scientific publications, and explored commercialisation of this research.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Practices and Industries
  • Representative Matters
    • Merck & Co., Inc. on:
      • its $1.3bn acquisition of Elanco’s aqua business;
      • its acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics for $680 million; and
      • its collaboration with Orion Corporation to develop and commercialize an oral inhibitor of CYP11A1 for the treatment of certain cancers.
    • BMS on the $14 billion merger with Karuna Therapeutics.
    • Novartis on its sale to Bausch + Lomb of a portfolio of “front of eye” ophthalmology products for up to $2.5 billion, including $1.75 billion in upfront cash and up to $750 million of milestone payments.
    • UCB on:
      • Strategic drug discovery collaboration with Aitia, a leader in the application of Causal AI and “Digital Twins” to discover and develop new drugs, on the discovery and validation of novel drug targets and drug candidates for Huntington’s disease.
      • Strategic research collaboration with Ariceum, a radiopharmaceuticals and labelling technology company, to discover new modalities for treatment of immune-related diseases and cancer.
      • The build-to-buy transaction for Handl Therapeutics, including advising on several gene therapy platform licensing and collaboration agreements.
    • Intrepid Alliance:Acting as one of the chief legal advisers for this consortium of global pharmaceutical companies dedicated to accelerating the pipeline of antiviral treatments to help protect the world ahead of future pandemics, including advising on the structuring of this innovative collaboration and ongoing IP and commercial matters.
    • Illumina on:
      • its partnership with Genomics England, to sequence up to 500,000 whole genomes for the NHS Genomic Medicine Service; and
      • its strategic alliance agreement with Genomics England in respect of sequencing genomes of patients with cancer and rare diseases, as part of a UK government project to decode 100,000 human genomes.
    • Advised lead investors Abingworth and Petrichor, together with co-investors DCVC Bio, 4BIO Capital, Cathay Health, and Deerfield Management, on their participation in the $130 million Series A fundraising by cell and gene manufacturing company, Ascend.
    • AstraZeneca on:
      • its strategic oncology collaboration with Innate Pharma S.A;
      • its $450,000,000 acquisition of Takeda’s respiratory business; and
      • an agreement with ProStrakan Group for the rights to Moventig in the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein for an upfront payment to AstraZeneca of $70,000,000, plus contingent milestones and double digit royalties.

    • GammaDelta Therapeutics Limited, a company focussed on harnessing the unique properties of gamma delta (γδ) T-cells to develop transformational immunotherapies, on:
      • a strategic collaboration with Takeda to develop GammaDelta Therapeutics’ novel T cell platform;
      • its acquisition of Lymphact, a Portuguese based company focused on developing innovative personalised medical treatments; and
      • the formation of Adaptate Biotherapeutics, a spin-out company building on GammaDelta’s knowledge to modulate γδ T-cell activity using therapeutic antibodies, with the potential to trigger an immune response against cancer.  
    • Venture capital firm ATP (Apple Tree Partners) on the formation of Adendra Therapeutics Ltd., a spin-out from the Francis Crick Institute in London that will discover and develop treatments for cancers and autoimmune diseases by applying new insights into regulation of adaptive immune responses by dendritic cells.
    • An NYSE-listed company on a co-promotion and option arrangement with a global pharmaceutical company, with respect to the development and commercialisation of certain late stage small molecule assets.
    • A global pharmaceutical company on an exclusive in-license from a NASDAQ-listed company for rights to its pre-clinical antibody asset.
    • Pharming in connection with its exclusive in-license from Novartis in respect of late development stage rare disease (APDS) product.
    • Autifony Therapeutics Limited on an option and asset purchase agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim, which provides Boehringer with an exclusive option to acquire Autifony’s Kv3.1/3.2 positive modulator platform, for a total potential consideration of €627,000,000 with an upfront option fee of €25,000,000.
    • Allergy Therapeutics in connection with a license agreement with respect of virus-like particle technology.
    • Arecor Therapeutics plc on the admission of its shares to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. The IPO raised gross proceeds of £20,000,000 through an oversubscribed placing of ordinary shares giving the company a market capitalisation of approximately £62,500,000.
    • Elanco on its divestiture to Vetoquionol of the European Economic Area, UK, Canadian and Australian rights to the Drontal and Profender product families for $150,000,000.
    • Breath Therapeutics B.V. and existing shareholders Gimv, Sofinnova Partners, Gilde Healthcare and founders on the sale of Breath Therapeutics to Zambon for up to a total of €500,000,000 subject to regulatory and sales milestones with an upfront payment of €140,000,000.
    • Ziylo Ltd on its acquisition by Novo Nordisk with a potential deal value that could exceed $800,000,000, and the spin out of certain Ziylo assets to a new company Carbometrics, with respect to rights to develop applications in diagnostics and continuous glucose monitoring.
    • Abingworth on the establishment of, and investment in, GammaDelta Therapeutics Limited.
    • Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital Partners on their seed financing of Myricx.
    • Sensata Technologies on its acquisition of Cynergy3, a UK-headquartered global manufacturer of liquid level and flow sensors, pressure transducers, and radio frequency relays.
    • Various biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical companies on day-to-day commercial and IP matters.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Credentials
    Education
    • BPP Law School, London, L.P.C., 2012
    • BPP Law School, London, G.D.L., 2011
    • University of Cambridge, Ph.D., 2010
        • Medicine
        • Wellcome Trust Studentship (Infection and Immunity)
    • Imperial College London, M.Sc., 2006
        • Biochemistry
        • First class honours
        • Governor’s Prize
    Bar Admissions
    • Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales
    Languages
    • Cantonese
    Pro Bono
    • Advising Academy Achievers, a non-profit organisation that promotes STEM careers among students from diverse and underprivileged backgrounds.
    Accolades
    • MergerLinks, Top Healthcare Lawyers in EMEA (2023)

    Areas of Expertise

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