What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Our team has recently been involved in integration activities related to Amgen’s $13bn acquisition of Otezla® from Celgene, including the negotiation of local purchase agreements in over ten countries, the transfer of over 300 employees to European Amgen affiliates, the negotiation and implementation of transitional services agreement with the seller, the transfer of marketing authorisation to Otezla, the assignment of distribution agreements in eight countries and assignment of supplier contracts.

We have participated in multiple projects under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI – EU funded research public-private partnership), including negotiation of grant agreements, consortium agreements and funding agreements with multiple pharmaceutical companies, public and private hospitals, and research institutions across Europe.

There has also been the launch of three biosimilar products across Europe, including coordination with regulatory filing strategy, IP group and risk mitigation strategy, commercial strategy and materials, and pricing and tendering strategy.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

The pandemic and related work from home arrangements and travel bans have forced us to reinvent the way we interact and stay connected with our internal clients. As a control function, an important part of our job is to keep our ‘ear to the ground’ and be close to our business clients. Within our teams, the work of an in-house lawyer can be quite lonely, in that the lawyer often acts alone in advising his or her internal client groups. The pandemic has increased that sense of loneliness and we have had to look for ways to stay connected and engaged as a team, share best practices, and support each other despite the distance.

What do you feel are the pros and cons of an in-house legal role compared to a private practice one?

The clear pros of an in-house legal role are the closeness to the business and direct impact on commercial decision-making, and the extreme variety of issues that need to be handled daily, compared to private practice where one is increasingly specialised in a niche area of expertise. What can be a disadvantage is the relative loneliness that in-house lawyers can feel in their advisory role to internal clients – even where there are large in-house teams, each lawyer has a specific area of responsibility, whether this is functional expertise or geographical responsibility, within which he or she will be ‘alone’ advising internal clients.