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Ying Zhao

Associate

San Francisco +1 415 591 7044

  • About
  • Representative Matters
  • Credentials
  • About

    Ying Zhao is a member of the firm’s Life Sciences Transactions practice. She advises life sciences companies across the full range of transactions that arise throughout the life cycle of life sciences products, including strategic collaborations, licensing arrangements and a variety of intellectual property and commercial matters.

    Prior to practicing law, Ying obtained her Ph.D. in molecular genetics and a concurrent master’s degree in biomedical engineering. Her Ph.D. research focused on homologous recombination, gene copy number variations and other aspects of DNA mutagenesis and DNA damage repair mechanisms.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Practices and Industries
  • Representative Matters

    Ying has advised various multinational pharmaceutical companies in the following matters:

    • Partnering with a leading venture capital firm in the formation of a discovery-stage biotech and a collaboration and option arrangement to develop xRNA-based therapeutics.
    • A global in-license from a Chinese biotech of an antibody product for the treatment of inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
    • A collaboration with a U.S. biotech to develop next-generation gene editing products leveraging CRISPR-based systems.
    • A split-territory license and collaboration arrangement with a Chinese biotech for a clinical-stage anti-inflammation product.
    • A global trial arrangement for a late-clinical-stage cardiovascular product with a Chinese biotech that held exclusive rights to such product in China.
    • Expansion of an existing oncology collaboration with a U.S. biotech to develop therapies for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
    • Advising Sanofi in a multi-target collaboration with Insilico Medicine to develop therapeutic compounds utilizing an AI-driven platform, with a total deal value of up to $1.2 billion.
    • Returning exclusive worldwide rights to a clinical-stage vaccine product to a U.S. biotech.
    • Advising Sanofi in a drug discovery collaboration with Exscientia to develop novel small molecule candidates for targets in oncology and immunology utilizing Exscientia’s AI-driven platform, with a total deal value of up to $5.2 billion.

    • A collaboration with a U.S. biotech to produce enzymes that optimize certain manufacturing processes utilizing AI.
    • Representing Merck in its $11.5 billion acquisition of Acceleron Pharma.
    • Restructuring a collaboration with a European biotech for the commercialization and development of a late-clinical-stage anti-inflammation product that had been approved in certain jurisdictions.

    Other representative matters Ying worked on include:

    • Advising a multinational medical device company in the formation of a medical device joint venture in China.
    • Advising a leading companion diagnostics company in partnerships with pharmaceutical companies for the co-development and commercialization of assays that identify patients for treatment with various therapeutics.
    • Advising a multinational medical device company in a number of clinical trial agreements for radiation oncology products across from approximately 20 U.S., European, Asian and Australian counterparties.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Credentials
    Education
    • Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, J.D., 2019
        • cum laude
    • Duke University, Ph.D/M.S., 2016
        • Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
        • M.S. in Biomedical Engineering
    • Tsinghua University, B.S., 2010
        • Biology
    Bar Admissions
    • California
    Languages
    • Mandarin

    Areas of Expertise

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