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

We have been involved in highly complex and innovative transactions with the most relevant players of the pharmaceutical industry around the world. Hovione is a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) dedicated to helping pharmaceutical customers bring new and off-patent drugs to market. The customers’ profile includes both Big Pharma and Biotech’s. Hovione is the world leader in the Spray Drying (it has become one of the most successful particle engineering technologies for improving drug bioavailability through the amorphous solid dispersion platform) and is gradually evolving into an IP-centred business model. The legal team reporting to the general counsel is responsible for legal, IP and compliance at Hovione. The team is worldwide spread and includes two chemical engineers. The geographic background is also quite diverse. Hovione’s Legal team is probably one of the most (if not the most) international legal team of a Portuguese company.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

Working with external lawyers who align with the company’s values is key to a successful longstanding relationship. When external lawyers are aligning with our values, they are more likely to understand our business goals and objectives and they can provide tailor-made legal advice and representation that considers our values, ensuring that our interests are protected while staying true to our ethical and moral principles. Hovione, being a family-owned business influenced by the values of the founding family, is quite stringent in terms of abiding by the business ethics and values: we live our values passionately and we believe in the importance of having a strong integrity, serving customers well, with scientific rigor and teamwork. If external lawyers are not aligned with this view, they may serve us well in the short-term, but the relationship will not last. We need to feel that they are a natural extension of what we do, what we believe. This alignment of principles will allow them to better understand the nuances of our business decisions and to align the legal strategies and advice with our broader objectives, ensuring that legal solutions are in line with our long-term vision. This shared understanding can facilitate smoother collaboration and more effective legal representation. On the other hand, we take reputation and branding seriously and working with external lawyers who align with our values helps ensure consistency between our legal actions and our public image. If our lawyers act in a manner consistent with our values, it strengthens our reputation as an ethical and responsible organisation. This alignment can positively impact our relationships with stakeholders, customers, and the broader community.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

I take this matter of building a strong relationship with business partners seriously, starting with the profile of the lawyers I hire – I often look for and pay attention to the transactional profile of the candidates (except for litigation roles), giving preference to collaborative problem-solvers rather than mere rule enforcers – and addressing the way we work together with the business units. We have weekly meetings with the most relevant business units of the Company, in which we define priorities in terms of work and align on common objectives and we measure our achievement through transversal KPIs to build a strong feeling of unity, as if we are ONE team. This also allows the legal team to be in the forefront of the internal communication and transversal alignment, proactively reaching out to our business partners, setting the pace of an effective communication, and keeping them informed about legal developments, offering guidance on legal matters relevant to their areas of responsibility. We also welcome and encourage an open-door policy to address any legal concerns or questions they may have, bridging the gaps that may exist within the organization. The other thing that we often do is the setting up of joint meetings/sessions to take time to understand our business partners’ goals, objectives, and challenges. By gaining a deep understanding of their priorities, we try to align legal advice and solutions to support their strategic initiatives. Experience tells me that this demonstrates our commitment to their success and builds trust and credibility. The other thing that we do – probably because we are part of a complex, innovative industry – is to build on the development of our Legal Team industry knowledge. This allows us to better serve our business partners and helps creating a common language of communication. We also foster collaboration through training. Every year, we define an annual clock for training sessions around the three pillars of legal, IP and compliance, and we measure our achievement through KPIs. It is important that we understand the industry, but also that our business partners understand the legal issues relevant to their roles. Last year, we have provided 18 training sessions, a record at Hovione. Finally, I would say that it’s also important to seek for regular feedback from business partners to better understand if we are taking the right direction and to be aware of their input on how we can better meet their needs or improve our collaboration.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

I would highlight here the ESG requirements in a broader sense, encompassing data privacy and cybersecurity. I would say that, most likely, ESG has become one of the most important risks on the horizon over the next 3 to 5 years. To provide some context, since January 5, 2023, CSRD makes mandatory to companies in scope to provide report on non-financial (sustainability) matters, including the detail information on systems and processes to assure such sustainability information, business-model, strategy, time-bound targets, opportunities and resilience to sustainability risks, the role of their administrative, management and supervisory bodies, as well due diligence process implemented (under double materiality analysis) regarding sustainability matters, the main adverse impacts connected with the undertaking and with its value chain, and any actions taken to prevent, mitigate, remediate or bring an end to those impacts. During last year, the Legal Department at Hovione has drafted and included as part of our legal templates a full language on compliance and ESG requirements and we will now be focusing on our supply chain, through due diligence processes, audits, and ongoing monitoring for ESG related matters.