Alan W. Tamarelli represents and counsels biotech, pharma, medical device, and other life sciences companies in connection with technology-driven strategic transactions. He is a member of Latham & Watkins’ Corporate Department and the Healthcare & Life Sciences, Data & Technology Transactions, Emerging Companies, and Mergers & Acquisitions Practices.
Mr. Tamarelli primarily handles:
- Research collaborations and development agreements
- Intellectual property and technology licensing agreements
- Commercial collaborations, including joint ventures, profit-sharing arrangements, and co-promotion agreements
- Manufacturing, distribution, supply, and quality agreements
- Clinical trial agreements
- M&A transactions
- Life sciences industry-specific matters and counseling
Prior to joining Latham, Mr. Tamarelli was counsel for over 10 years at the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck). At Merck, as counsel for corporate transactions, Mr. Tamarelli worked closely with business development groups on a wide variety of biotech and pharma strategic transactions. Earlier at Merck, Mr. Tamarelli was responsible for successfully managing and resolving a variety of significant litigation and regulatory matters specific to the pharma and biotech industries.
Mr. Tamarellli's recent experience includes representing:
- Centrexion Therapeutics in connection with a collaboration and licensing agreement with Eli Lilly related to a non-opioid pain medication
- Jnana Therapeutics in connection with a research collaboration with Neurocrine Biosciences to discover novel medicines to treat CNS disorders
- Chinese biotechnology company CStone Pharmaceuticals in connection with an immuno-oncology licensing transaction with Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the Greater China market
- Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in connection with a clinical oncology collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb
- As lead counsel, Confluence Life Sciences, Inc., a biotech developing kinase inhibitors for oncological and other uses, in connection with its sale to Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc.
- Histogenics Corp., a developer of restorative cell therapies, in a licensing, development, and commercialization agreement with MEDINET Co., Ltd.
- As outside counsel, Merck in connection with a research collaboration with, and investment in, SerImmune, Inc. related to use of SerImmune’s immune mapping platform technology
- Portal Instruments in connection with a research collaboration and licensing agreement with Takeda related to Portal’s needle-free drug delivery device
- Royal DSM on intellectual property licensing and technology transfer issues related to several transactions expanding its health, nutrition, and materials alliance with Amyris Inc.
- The Carlyle Group on intellectual property-related aspects of its acquisition of AMRI, a pharma and biotech contract research and manufacturing organization
- Pint Pharma International in connection with a supply agreement with Shire for a rare disease product to be marketed in Latin America
- Merck in connection with a broad research collaboration and license agreement with Ablynx for the design and development of antibodies against multiple targets in the immuno-oncology field*
- Merck in the divestiture via out-license to Allergan of a major Phase 2 research program in a high profile and competitive therapeutic space*
- Merck in a establishing a worldwide commercialization and research collaboration (essentially a virtual JV) with Bayer for the development and commercialization of one marketed and several developmental compounds to treat rare and difficult to treat conditions, as well as a series of ancillary agreements necessary to effectuate such collaboration across jurisdictions*
- Merck in an from Novartis via an in-license of a portion of the worldwide rights to market a successful antibiotic product, along with associated technology transfer and transition services arrangements*
- Merck in the sale of a research subsidiary to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and associated cross-license agreements related to key patents and know-how*
- Parties to numerous research collaboration and license agreements between large pharma and smaller biotech collaborators for the discovery and development of compounds, peptides, or antibodies of interest*
- Merck in the acquisition via in-license of certain territory rights to commercialize a successful product earlier out-licensed to AstraZeneca, as well as transition and associated supply and regulatory agreements pertaining thereto*
- Parties to approximately one dozen high profile clinical trial collaboration agreements between pharma and biotech companies in the competitive immuno-oncology field, including agreements related to the combined clinical use of their respective therapies*
- Merck in connection with a platform technology in-license, tech transfer, and collaboration with Codexis for the use of a proprietary protein engineering platform*
- Merck in a broad and high profile collaboration with the M.D. Anderson cancer center to design and perform a portfolio of novel clinical studies in the immuno-oncology field*
- Merck in connection with an “authorized generic” agreement with Teva, along with associated licensing, pharmacovigilance, and supply agreements*
Other Experience
- As in-house counsel, Mr. Tamarelli managed and successfully resolved thousands of consolidated federal and state product liability, consumer and toxic tort lawsuits, as well as numerous class-action lawsuits*
- As outside counsel at another large, international law firm prior to joining Merck, Mr. Tamarelli: (a) acted as trial and litigation counsel in a wide variety of commercial litigation cases in federal and state courts, and (b) represented corporate clients in mergers and acquisitions, as well as with securities filings and disclosure*
*Matter handled prior to joining Latham