August.08.2019
Orrick has advised Bayer on its acquisition of BlueRock Therapeutics, a biotech company established by Bayer and Versant Ventures in 2016. Bayer will acquire the remaining 59.2% stake in BlueRock for $240 million, to be paid upfront at closing, as well as an additional $360 million payable when pre-defined development milestones are achieved. With Bayer currently holding a 40.8% stake, the investment corresponds to a $1 billion valuation of BlueRock.
With this transaction, Bayer will own full rights to BlueRock’s CELL+GENETM platform, including a broad intellectual property portfolio and associated technology platform. The closing of the transaction is expected in the third quarter of 2019.
This is the third transaction that Orrick has advised Bayer on over the last two months. In July, we counseled Leaps by Bayer, Bayer’s investment arm, on its $215 million investment commitment in Century Therapeutics, and in June, we represented Bayer on its collaboration and joint venture with Arvinas. The Orrick team on the BlueRock acquisition was led by Matthew Gemello and included Ramy Shweiky, Max Hyatt, Thomas Joraanstad, Eric Wall, Diana Gillis, Harry Clark, Ewa Mykytvn, Juliano Banuelos, Steven Malvey, Alex Okuliar, Mark Seneca, Michael Weil and Matthew Rose.