How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience? 

GenScript Biotech is a leading global biotechnology solutions provider, with significant operations in China.  The elevated geopolitical tension poses significant challenges to our ongoing operations and growth strategies.  Despite having a modest-sized legal team and operating budget, we work diligently and efficiently, leveraging all available resources to ensure the smooth conduct of our daily business activities while remaining vigilant about major risk factors.  We resort to external expertise whenever needed, and utilise cutting edge technologies including AI in managing workload and ensuring quality of work-products.  Further, our team integrates both the legal and intellectual property (IP) functions, and our perspective is a unique combination of traditional risk mitigation (legal) and value creation (IP generation and innovation).  We are not a passive member of the team, but an active contributor to the values we provide to our customers and partners.

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

Despite challenging macroeconomic and capital market conditions, GenScript Biotech continues to grow and expand its global operations.  Recently, we completed a complex asset acquisition transaction in the US involving various aspects such as real estate, technology export, human resources, environmental concerns, IT infrastructure, data protection, and other issues.  The successful completion of this deal significantly enhanced our ability to serve our customers in the U.S.  At around the same time, GenScript Biotech faced scrutiny from a U.S. congressional committee, which characterised our operations unfairly and inaccurately.  The Legal Team, along with our Investor Relations (IR) and Public Relations (PR) colleagues, were able to clarify the situation and re-establish trust and confidence in our company and our ability to continue to grow.

What strategic priorities are guiding you and your team in 2024? 

For the remainder of this year and for the foreseeable future, we will focus on establishing a corporate and operational strategy to overcome challenges against the uncertain geopolitical backdrop and sustain our rapid pace of growth.