Kristopher D. Brown

Kristopher Brown is a partner in the firm’s Life Sciences group. Kristopher negotiates and structures private equity and venture capital financing transactions. He also advises on corporate and transactional matters for numerous financial and corporate strategic investors as well as emerging growth companies in the life sciences, healthcare, financial, and technology sectors.

Kristopher has experience in the full range of complex commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, public offerings, licensing transactions, the formation of investment partnerships, and the creation of strategic and collaborative alliances and joint ventures. Practicing for more than 20 years, Kristopher has advised on more than 250 transactions in the life sciences sector alone. In addition, he counsels investors, management executives, and boards of directors on governance and regulation issues and securities law matters.

Kristopher is listed as a “Life Sciences Star” and a “US Transactional Rising Star” by LMG Life Sciences and has been listed as a recommended lawyer for life sciences and capital markets: equity and global offerings by The Legal 500, where he was cited as being “highly skilled and committed” and noted for the “strength of his client relationships.”

Kristopher also serves as a Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship, or NOME, mentor for a large number of early stage Nordic life sciences companies, and was named the 2022 Mentor of the Year by NOME.

Kristopher has advised on award-winning life sciences deals, including:

Capital Markets

• Olink Holding AB (publ) in its $265 million IPO on Nasdaq in the US
• Calliditas Therapeutics in its upsized $90 million IPO on Nasdaq in the US
• Bicycle Therapeutics in its $60 million IPO on Nasdaq in the US
• Advaxis, Inc. in multiple follow-on financings on Nasdaq
• Zealand Pharma in its $75 million IPO on Nasdaq in the US*
• Forward Pharma in its $221 million IPO on Nasdaq in the US, which won M&A Advisor’s “Healthcare/Life Sciences Sector Deal of the Year” award*

M+A

• Johnson & Johnson in the sale of its BabyCenter business to Everyday Health Group
• Johnson & Johnson in the sale of one of its drug product lines to Baxter
• Johnson & Johnson in the transfer of collaboration rights and assets to Pharma Mar
• Remedy Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Biogen, in a transaction which received a “Commended” ranking at the Financial Times North American Innovative Lawyers 2017 Awards*
• Lazada Group on the $1 billion sale of a controlling stake in the company to Alibaba, which was named “M&A Deal of the Year: Southeast Asia” at The Asian Lawyer’s 2017 Asia Legal Awards*
• AM-Pharma’s sale of a minority interest in the company to Pfizer Inc. and related option payment, which was a finalist for the 2015 Scrip Awards*

Licensing + Collaborations

• Johnson & Johnson in its strategic alliance with Apple to deploy the Apple Watch to detect atrial fibrillation
• Johnson & Johnson in its partnership with Verily (f/k/a Google Life Sciences) to innovate advanced surgical robots, which won LMG’s “2015 Collaboration Deal of the Year”*

Royalty Monetizations

• Barings in the purchase of certain rights from George Washington University related to the license by GWU of its vasoconstrictor drug to La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company
• Onxeo in the $7.5 million royalty and milestone monetization from SWK Holdings of Onxeo’s oncology drug to treat refractory peripheral T cell lymphoma
• Zealand Pharma in the $205 million royalty and milestone monetization from Royalty Pharma of Zealand’s GLP-1 diabetes franchise
• Zealand Pharma’s monetization of certain royalty rights under its license agreement with Sanofi-Aventis, which was a finalist for the 2015 Scrip Awards*

Venture Capital

• Johnson and Johnson UK Treasury Company Limited as lead investor of the $1.3 billion Series B financing of Grail, Inc., which was named LMG Life Sciences 2017 “Impact Deal of the Year”*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Kristopher is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Kristopher is a member of Brown University’s Advisory Council on Entrepreneurship, and is also a member of the National Advisory Council for, and served until 2018 as the pro bono outside general counsel to DonorsChoose.org. In addition, Kristopher serves on the investor board of Venture for America, the advisory board of Lyfebulb, as a Blueprint Health mentor, and as a member of the Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship, or NOME.

In November 2021, Kristopher was nominated by the Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship (NOME) for its inaugural NOME award which recognizes mentors who have been particularly active and made a difference for NOME over the past year.

• Speaker, “Optimizing and Structuring Global Collaboration and Licensing Transactions,” Bio Korea 2020 virtual seminar, Seoul, South Korea, ” May 2020
• Speaker, “ Navigating the Complexities of Raising Capital to Fund a LatAm-Based Pharma or Biosimilar Business Seeking to Access the US Market,” Fórum Clube seminar, São Paulo, Brazil, September 2019
• Co-Author, “Union of Tech, Life Sciences and Health Care is Here to Stay,” Law360, May 2019
• Guest lecturer, “The Growing Convergence of Life Sciences / Healthcare and Technology,” Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia University Business School,  July 2018
• Co-Author, “Navigating the Complexities of a Digital Health Transaction,” Corporate Counsel, March 2018
• Co-Host, “Nordic Biotech Update Q&A,” Nasdaq, March 2018