近日，中国生物科技公司亘喜生物宣布正式完成与阿斯利康集团的合并协议。亘喜生物将成为阿斯利康的全资子公司，其美国存托凭证将从纳斯达克交易所退市。
亘喜生物与阿斯利康于 2023 年 12 月 23 日签署合并协议，交易于 2024 年 2 月 22 日交割。总交易价值高达12亿美元。
锐敏律师事务所、富而德律师事务所作为买方阿斯利康的法律顾问参与交易；锦天城律师事务所、科律律师事务所则为亘喜提供了法律意见。
迈普达、衡力斯分别作为买卖两方的离岸法律顾问参与交易。
亘喜生物成立于2017年，以苏州为总部、上海为研发中心，是中国当前专注于CAR-T疗法的创新药企之一，公司于2021年1月在纳斯达克上市。
亘喜生物成为了中国首家被全球排名前十的大型药企收购的生物科技公司。通过此次收购，阿斯利康将亘喜生物的GC012F CAR-T细胞疗法收入囊中。
锐敏团队由合伙人贡亚敏律师、合伙人王诗华律师领导；
锦天城团队由高级合伙人温从军、黄晶晶律师领导，并得到许星杰律师等支持。高级合伙人吴卫明、顾晓律师及合伙人章宁晓律师分别在网络安全、数据合规、反垄断、劳动等专业领域提供建议。
富而德团队由合伙人Sebastian L. Fain和周峥（Jonathan Zhou）牵头领导，提供支持的中国团队包括公司法/生命科学业务顾问律师马娅、反垄断合伙人Ninette Dodoo（杜宁）以及劳动法业务顾问律师赵卓盈（Stephanie Chiu）；
科律团队由合伙人蔡华（Will Cai）、陆培祥（Patrick Loofbourrow）、Rama Padmanabhan、Rowook Park 、张捷（Jie Zhang）及 Izzy Lubarsky 领衔。
Freshfields, Cooley on AstraZeneca's $1.2 BLN acquisition of Gracell
Chinese biotech company Gracell Biotechnologies has recently announced the official completion of the merger agreement with AstraZeneca. Gracell will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca, and will be delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange. The two companies signed the merger agreement on December 23, 2023, and the transaction was completed on February 22, 2024. The total transaction value reached $1.2 billion.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and RuiMin were acting as legal advisors to AstraZeneca, with Cooley and AllBright Law Offices acting for Gracell in the deal.
Maples Group and Harney Westwood & Riegels were involved in the transaction as offshore legal advisors for the buyer and the seller, respectively.
Founded in 2017, with its headquarters in Suzhou and its R&D center in Shanghai, Gracell is one of China's leading innovative pharmaceutical companies focusing on CAR-T therapy. The company was listed on NASDAQ in January 2021.
Gracell therefore became the first Chinese biotech company to be acquired by a top ten global pharmaceutical company. Through this acquisition, AstraZeneca has gained Gracell’s GC012F CAR-T cell therapy.
The Freshfields team was led by partners Sebastian L. Fain and Jonathan Zhou, with support from the China team including corporate law/life sciences consultant Ma Ya, antitrust partner Ninette Dodoo, and labor law consultant Stephanie Chiu;
The Cooley team was led by partners Will Cai, Patrick Loofbourrow, Rama Padmanabhan, Rowook Park, Jie Zhang, and Izzy Lubarsky.
The RuiMin team was led by corporate partners Silvia Gong and Echo Wang.
The AllBright team saw the leadership of senior partners Wen Congjun and Huang Jingjing, with support from Xu Xingjie. Senior partners Wu Weiming and Gu Xiao, along with partner Zhang Ningxiao, provided advice in areas such as cybersecurity, data compliance, antitrust, and labor law.
