GSK Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD)

Vice President, Head of Business Strategy

• Accountable for devising and implementing creative deal structures with biotech partners
• Accountable for leading negotiations for amendments to CEEDD portfolio of existing strategic alliances

GlaxoSmithKline, Inc.

Assistant General Counsel, Business Development Transactions

• Lead Counsel for several of GlaxoSmithKline’s most prolific deal-making R&D units and Therapy Areas
• Leadership Team Member for CEEDD and for Immuno-Inflammation Therapy Area Unit
• Negotiation and completion of more than 50 major collaboration and licensing deals across a broad range of biotech partners as well as academic and government entity partners
• Several collaborations and licensing deals resulted in products that were commercially launched or are in the late-stage GSK pipeline , e.g. Benlysta® (belimumab) and Tanzeum™ (albiglutide)
• Led drafting and negotiation of strategic partnerships that included GSK’s major R&D alliances such as Human Genome Sciences, Inc., ChemoCentryx, Inc., Prosensa Therapeutics, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Regulus, Inc. Dynavax, Inc., and Cellzome, Inc., among others
• Lead Counsel on cutting-edge special projects such as the formation by GSK of the Cambridge-based NewCo. Tempero Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and GSK’s groundbreaking three-way gene therapy deal with the Telethon Institute of Gene Therapy (TIGET) and the Hospital San Raffaele of Milan, Italy

Merck & Co.

Scientific Liaison Associate- External Scientific Affairs

• Led negotiations for numerous Material Transfer Agreements, Sponsored Research Agreements and Patent License Agreements for several therapeutic areas of Merck Research Labs

Research Biochemist

• Developed key analytical assays and cGMP biopharmaceutical process purification steps and transferred steps successfully to manufacturing for several of Merck’s recombinant protein and vaccine products such as Vaqta® (HepA) and Gardasil® (HPV) vaccines
• Co-authored several patents and publications on novel biopharmaceutical process purification steps and analytical assays

Prior to joining Glaxo Smith Kline, Rob was a patent attorney focusing on the preparation and prosecution of biotechnology and pharmaceutical patent applications and freedom to operate analyses at the Philadelphia office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP.

Industry Collaborations

• H3 Biomedicine Inc.’s drug discovery collaboration and license agreement with Foundation Medicine, Inc. for the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for cancer using FMI’s genomics database
• Navitor Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s drug discovery collaboration and license option agreement with  X-Chem for discovery of novel small molecules targeting mTORC1 activation
• Unum Therapeutics, Inc.’s Exclusive license agreement with National University of Singapore for the in-license of core platform technology
• NIH license agreement for a gene therapy client for certain gene therapy technology
• H3 Biomedicine Inc.’s drug discovery collaboration and license agreement with Selvita (PL:SLV) for its novel kinase drug discovery platform
• Research Collaboration Agreements for drug discovery programs between client Ossianix, Inc. and H. Lundbeck A/S involving Ossianix’s VNAR technology for bispecific antibodies
• Evaluation and Option Agreements for multiple biotech clients as a prelude to larger strategic deals with big pharma or larger biotech partners

Strategic Transactions

• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals acquisition of Sirna Therapeutics from Merck for $175 million plus milestones and royalties- led the licensing and IP asset purchase agreement aspects of the deal
• Formation of a NewCo spinout from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute- led the collaboration and license option agreement for the core platform IP license and collaboration for the NewCo client
• Cross-License and cross-border strategic partnership between client ProThera Biologics, Inc. and Canadian biotech ProMetic Life Sciences, Inc. to develop, manufacture and commercialize plasma-derived Inter-alpha Inhibitor Proteins for treating orphan diseases

• Rob has been a frequent speaker and panelist at American Conference Institute (ACI) Legal and Business Development Conferences and CBI Legal Conferences on Strategic Collaborations and License Agreements
• Active member of PA Bio
• Active member of church and charitable organizations