Team size: Four

Major legal advisers: Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Cooley LLP

What impact did the pandemic have on the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries in Ireland?

The initial shift from an office working environment to working from home was certainly the biggest challenge at the outset of the pandemic. Pharma and med tech industry in Ireland feared the ‘unknown’ and how it may potentially impact operations. Amryt Pharma handled the lockdown and the working from home switch professionally and enthusiastically. The HR and IT departments provided great support to ensure employees needs were addressed. Our executive leadership team regularly discussed employee’s well-being, putting in place several initiatives including ‘well-being days’ to concentrate on health and ‘head-space time’ away from calls or meetings. Amryt has subsequently been certified as a ‘Great Place to Work’ in Ireland at our first attempt.

As an organisation, we were conscious of legislative changes related to restrictions on working environments; travel restrictions both in Ireland and throughout each of the jurisdictions where we operate; the challenges in reacting to pandemic related changes to ensure the safety of our employees and patients and more. Having developed contingency plans, we ensured we continued to deliver and through the hard work of our teams, have managed to not only keep our business on track, but continued to grow.

What are the most important transactions, litigations, or other major projects that you have been involved in?

The most significant transaction I have been involved in recently has been the acquisition of Chiasma, in an all-stock combination. Chiasma was a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercialising oral therapies to improve the lives of patients who face challenges associated with their existing treatments for rare and serious chronic diseases through their product Mycapssa and their development pipeline. We hope to realise the full potential of Mycapssa globally as the first and only oral somatostatin analogue approved for appropriate patients with acromegaly. It is expected to diversify Amryt’s growing revenues and we expect to deliver annual cost synergies to further solidify our position as a global leader in treating rare and orphan conditions.

Other notable transactions I recently completed include the completion of the highly complex acquisition of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. from US Chapter 11 bankruptcy within a tight timeframe in 2019. This acquisition was followed by the acquisition of Irish based, Cala Medical Limited, a major milestone for Amryt with the listing of the company on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in July 2020 coupled with the implementation of Amryts American Depositary Receipt programme. We also recently secured $125m of senior credit facilities from funds managed by Ares Management Corporation in a non-dilutive debt refinancing of Amryts previous secured term debt facility, expected to bring in significant annual interest cost savings and provide for important strategic flexibility for Amryt to continue to grow its global rare disease presence.