John A Hurvitz

John Hurvitz is a partner, based in Washington, DC, who represents life sciences clients throughout the United States and in Europe and Asia. Mr. Hurvitz co-chairs Covington's Life Sciences Industry Group and he heads the firm's Technology Transactions Group. Life Sciences For well over a decade, Mr. Hurvitz's practice has focused exclusively on meeting the specialized corporate, commercial, and transactional needs of the life sciences industry. As a registered US patent attorney with an undergraduate degree in biology and substantial food and drug regulatory experience, he brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to the complex nexus of commercial, regulatory, and intellectual property issues that confront the industry. He has extensive experience structuring and negotiating all manner of commercial, corporate (including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures) and partnering transactions in the industry, ranging from early-stage research collaborations to global alliances to develop and commercialize products. He has negotiated numerous late-stage and product commercialization deals and is fully conversant in the range of issues that these transactions present. He has also assisted many major global pharmaceutical companies prepare their standard forms of agreement. Mr. Hurvitz's clients include many of the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as smaller emerging companies, including Abbott, AstraZeneca, Biosynexus, Boehringer Ingelheim, deCODE, Eli Lilly, Encysive, Eisai, GPC Biotech, Human Genome Sciences, Intercell, King Pharmaceuticals, Medarex, Merck, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Procter & Gamble, Quest Diagnostics, and sanofi aventis, who look to him not only for transactional counsel but also for strategic advice in asset management, enhancing performance, and dispute resolution under existing collaborations, and identifying industry best practice and other benchmarking advice. His experience representing both innovators and acquirers of technology across a range of transactions enables Mr. Hurvitz to assist clients both in finding practical solutions to their most complex problems as well as in efficiently and cost-effectively handling routine corporate and commercial matters. Global Health Mr. Hurvitz is also active in global health matters. He worked with the Center for Global Development to develop and implement an incentive-based market mechanism to stimulate the development and commercialization of vaccines to address critical unmet health needs in the developing world, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. See Making Markets for Vaccines: Ideas to action http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_archive/vaccinedevelopment, and E.R. Berndt and J.A. Hurvitz, Vaccine Advance-Purchase Agreements for Low-Income Countries: Practical Issues, 24 HEALTH AFFAIRS 653 (2005). The Advance Market Commitment, as it is known, was endorsed by the G8, which charged the World Bank and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to develop a proposal for a pilot program. Mr. Hurvitz represented GAVI and the World Bank in connection with developing the pilot AMC. He also has represented GAVI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, PATH and the Center for Global Development in connection with other global health activities. REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS Abbott Laboratories in its $3.7 billion acquisition of Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Medarex on its $2.4 billion merger with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Encysive Pharmaceuticals in exploring strategic options for the company, which involved conducting concurrent auctions of each of the entire company, its European business and certain specified assets, which ultimately resulted in the sale of the Company to Pfizer for $195 million. GPC Biotech in granting Yakult Honsha (Tokyo, Japan) exclusive rights to develop and commercialize satraplatin in Japan. GPC will receive ¥1.2 billion and is eligible for undisclosed regulatory milestones, plus a minimum of 21% royalties. Eisai in its acquisition of four marketed oncology products from Ligand for $205 million, which involved extending employment offers to certain of Ligand’s sales force and other personnel. AstraZeneca in an exclusive worldwide collaboration with Map Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialize a Phase III product for the treatment of pediatric asthma, which involved upfront fees, milestones and funding commitments in excess of $900 million. More Representative Matters PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE Salomon Brothers, Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures Group, Financial Analyst (1986-1988) HONORS AND RANKINGS Chambers USA, recognized for Life Sciences/Commercial (Band 1) Chambers Global, recognized as a leading lawyer for Life Sciences/Commercial Law360, Life Sciences “MVP” (2012) Washington DC Super Lawyers, recognized for Mergers & Acquisitions Who's Who Legal, Life Sciences PLC Which Lawyer?, consistently recognized as a "leading commercial and partnering" lawyer, and one of only five "leading" corporate partnering lawyers in the US. LMG Life Sciences, “Life Science Star” IAM Patent 1000 - The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners LMG Life Sciences, “Life Science Star” (2012) Legal Times, recognized as one of the top life sciences lawyer in Washington, DC (2006) LawDragon 500, New Stars (2006) PRO BONO Advisor, World Bank and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in their efforts on behalf of the G7/8 to develop and implement a pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to stimulate the development and introduction of new vaccines to address critical unmet health needs in the developing world, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Member, Expert Group on AMCs convened by the World Bank and GAVI to advise on the design and implementation of an AMC pilot project. Member, Global Health Forecasting Working Group, convened by the Policy Research Network at the Center for Global Development to analyze demand forecasting for health products, with a particular emphasis on products that are procured largely with external funding, to identify areas for improvement and to develop analytically-based policy recommendations. Outside Counsel, Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. Assisting the Enterprise with corporate structure, governance and other matters. Outside Counsel, Zero to Three, a national non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the healthy development of infants and toddlers by supporting and strengthening families, communities, and those who work on their behalf. Legal Advisor, Consortium for Child Welfare, the association of the non-governmental child welfare organizations serving the District of Columbia. Represented the Consortium in its efforts to overhaul the child welfare laws and create a dedicated family division within the Superior Court in the District of Columbia. On behalf of the District of Columbia Bar’s Community Economic Development Project, prepared a comprehensive legal practice and issues manual for non-profit day care centers and provided training for attorneys who agreed to represent non-profit day care centers on a pro bono basis so as to help stimulate the creation of high quality, affordable day care in the District of Columbia for low- and moderate-income families. Legal Advisor, Housing and Urban Development Occupancy Task Force on People with Disabilities in Public Housing. Advised the Task Force in connection with its efforts to improve access to public housing and related services for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities. On behalf of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, successfully represented a multi-ethnic group of highly prominent Bosnian citizens in their efforts to obtain political asylum in the United States at the height of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS Law360, 2012 Life Sciences Editorial Advisory Board Latin American Youth Center, Board of Directors, Chair, Governance Committee. Provides multicultural youth with a comprehensive set of social services and educational, work skills, advocacy and residential programs, and which operates several public charter schools, all in the greater Washington, DC region. Georgetown University Law Center, Food and Drug Law, Adjunct Professor Haverford College, Class Chair