Sidley is pleased to announce that it advised GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on its collaboration with Avalon Ventures to fund and launch up to ten early-stage life sciences companies in San Diego.
This first-of-its kind collaboration will fuel early stage innovation. The Sidley team was lead by partners Joshua Hofheimer in Los Angeles and Pran Jha in Chicago, with assistance from associates Natasha Johnson in Los Angeles, Jonathan Dorfman in Chicago and Jay Huh in Palo Alto. Sidley provided counsel to GSK on the organization of the master collaboration and funding agreements, as well as structuring the downstream options for acquiring the various portfolio companies. The Sidley team was able to act quickly within a compressed time frame to assist GSK in finalizing this collaboration, which will result in GSK providing up to $465 million in seed funding and payments upon the achievement of certain development milestones, and Avalon Ventures providing funding of up to $30 million.
