About

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, commonly known as Sobi, is a company that provides access to innovative treatments that make a significant difference for people with rare diseases. Despite its Swedish base – Sobi’s head office is located in Stockholm – it is a truly international organisation, being present in 25 countries and delivering treatments to patients in over 60 countries across the globe. Having all relevant risk management topics under its scope, the Sobi legal function consists of a legal department, a compliance department and an IP department. Members are based in Stockholm, Munich and Boston, and total 17 professionals headed by general counsel Torbjörn Hallberg. In addition to Hallberg, who joined Sobi in January 2018 after a successful spell at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, associate general counsel Carin Dahlqvist has been with the company for four years. In 2019 Uwe Fröhlich – formerly of Shire – joined the team as head of legal and compliance for Europe, whilst in the US, the team is led by Heather Golding, head of legal and compliance for North America. Hallberg explains the upward trajectory of the team time since his arrival as follows: ‘The legal affairs team [has] grown significantly and been restructured to establish the three separate departments [of] legal, compliance and IP. The team is represented across both regional and local management boards and has a unique position to connect dots within the organisation. Organisational and strategic changes in the company has meant the recruitment of new senior leaders and counsel, whilst Sobi continues its growth journey’. The Sobi legal department operates in a matrix structure, and team members benefit from several recent initiatives instigated by the organisation, and as Hallberg illustrates, these include ‘the rollout of comprehensive data privacy training and awareness, re-emphasis on anti-trust compliance programmes and a shaping of corporate governance models’. Unafraid to embrace cutting edge technology, the team has introduced ‘various digital tools’ in its day-to-day work, including its corporate governance systems. The benefit to introducing these technological advancements and new developments allows the team to, as Hallberg puts it, ‘prioritise correctly for the patient and help the business develop’ as well as become a function that is ‘extraordinarily high performing [as] demonstrated by a high engagement level’. This self-improvement and awareness has bolstered the team’s legal, compliance and commercial nous, and it has demonstrated its capabilities in several areas on behalf of Sobi’s business. Two such examples came when the team led Sobi’s acquisition of Synagis from AstraZeneca in the US, as well as when it helped the company acquire the global rights to Gamifant from Novimmune. The former acquisition saw ‘a total upfront consideration corresponding to SEK13.6bn, consisting of SEK 9.1bn in cash and SEK 4.5bn equivalent in newly issued Sobi shares’, whilst the latter saw Sobi agree an ‘exclusive license agreement with Novimmune for the perpetual global rights to emapalumab, a late-stage orphan drug candidate for the treatment of primary Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), developed by Novimmune’.