Maria Dragun

Maria Dragun is a partner in the corporate practice of Goodwin’s Technology and Life Sciences groups in London. Maria focuses on UK and cross-border transactions in the life sciences, healthcare and technology sectors, acting for companies as well as their investors. She has a broad corporate practice and advises on all stages of the corporate life cycle, including company formation, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, reorganisations and general life cycle matters.

Maria’s representative experience includes advising:

M&A 

• Calypso Biotech and its selling shareholders on its sale to Novartis AG  for upfront consideration of $250 million with potential for shareholders to receive up to $175 million based on the achievement of certain predetermined milestones
• Syndesi Therapeutics and its selling shareholders on its sale to AbbVie Central Finance B.V. for an upfront consideration of $130 million with potential for shareholders to receive additional contingent payments of up to $870 million based on the achievement of certain predetermined milestones
• Emergence Therapeutics and its selling shareholders on its sale to Eli Lilly and Company
• SynAffix and its selling shareholders on its sale to Lonza. Under the terms of the sale and purchase agreement, Lonza have paid Synaffix’s shareholders an upfront payment of €100 million, with the potential for shareholders to receive an additional payment of up to €60 million contingent on financial performance
• Yasa Ltd and its selling shareholders on its sale to Mercedes-Benz AG
• Otta, a job search platform that aims to help you find a new job that suits your preferences, goals and personality, on its sale to Welcome to the Jungle
• Drax Group plc on its Class 1 acquisition of a portfolio of pumped storage, hydro and gas-fired generation assets from Scottish Power Generation Holdings Limited*
• Richemont on its acquisition of the ordinary shares of Yoox Net-A-Porter Group not already owned by Richemont group companies*

Venture Capital Financings 

• Vicebio on its $100 million Series B financing led by by TCGX. Vicebio is focused on developing next-generation respiratory virus vaccines using the Molecular Clamp Technology
• Forbion, HealthCap and Bioqube Ventures on co-leading SynOx Therapeutic’s $75 million Series B financing to fund Phase 3 trial of potential best-in-class treatment for TGCT
• CellCentric on its $25 million strategic investment from Pfizer to support CellCentric’s development of inobrodib, a pioneering oral p300/CBP inhibitor
• Novartis Venture Fund  and other members of the investor syndicate on the $61 million Series A financing of AstronauTx Ltd
• Akamis Bio on its $30 million convertible note financing co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Westlake Village BioPartners
• Omega Funds on co-leading Artios Pharma Limited’s $153 million Series C financing. Artios Pharma is the developer of novel cancer treatments designed to target DNA Damage Response
• Lowercarbon Capital on their $10 million Series A financing of Breathe Battery Technologies, a state-of-the-art control software that uses adaptive algorithms which consider the unique and evolving condition of every battery
• Insempra on its strategic investment into Solena Materials Ltd, a spin-out from Imperial College London developing synthetic proteins for high-performance clothing fibers
• Oxford Nanopore Technologies on a number of its pre-IPO funding rounds from 2018-2021*
• Immunocore Limited, a leading clinical-stage T cell receptor biotechnology company, on its collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, including an investment of up to $40 million to support development of certain immunotherapies for infectious diseases*
• Immunocore Limited on its $130 million Series B funding round led by General Atlantic*

IPOs 

• A leading British life sciences company on its initial public offering on the Main Market of the LSE*
• Aquis Exchange plc, the pan-European equities exchange operator and technology service provider, on its initial public offering on AIM**Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Prior to joining Goodwin, Maria was an associate at Slaughter and May. As part of her time at Slaughter and May, Maria also completed a secondment to BlackRock’s legal team.