Ryan Murr is a partner in the San Francisco office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he serves as a member of the firm’s Corporate Transactions Department, with a practice focused on representing leading companies and investors in the life sciences and technology space. Mr. Murr currently serves as a Co-Chair of the firm’s Life Sciences Practice Group and previously served as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Management Committee.

Mr. Murr represents public and private companies and investors in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, technology, medical device and diagnostics industries in connection with securities offerings and business combination transactions. In addition, Mr. Murr regularly serves as principal outside counsel for publicly traded companies and private venture-backed companies, advising management teams and boards of directors on corporate law matters, SEC reporting, corporate governance, licensing transactions, and mergers & acquisitions.

Recognized by Chambers USA in the area of Life Sciences, clients describe Mr. Murr as “creative and smart” and someone who “gets the better of the other side.”

Legal Media Group (Euromoney) has ranked Mr. Murr nationally as a “Star” in Life Sciences in the areas of Corporate, Licensing & Collaboration, Mergers & Acquisitions and Venture Capital. Mr. Murr has twice been nominated by Legal Media Group as “Finance & Transactional Attorney of the Year.”

Mr. Murr has served as a member of the American Bar Association’s Mergers and Acquisitions Subcommittee and is active in advising various not-for-profit entities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Capital Markets Experience

Mr. Murr regularly represents issuers in a range of capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings, private placements (ranging from early-stage investments to crossover rounds and PIPEs), follow-on equity financings and debt financings. Mr. Murr has deep experience with a range of financing transaction structures beyond traditional underwritten offerings, including at-the-market offerings, rights offerings, PIPEs, and equity lines. Over the past decade, Mr. Murr has filed over 70 registration statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, registering securities for offerings by issuers in the life sciences industry.

Mr. Murr also regularly represents investors in the life sciences and technology space, including private equity funds, hedge funds, and venture capital funds. Financing transactions have included public and private offerings ranging from passive investments to bespoke control structures and spin-outs.

Representative M&A and Licensing Transactions

Mr. Murr regularly advises pharmaceutical, biotechnology, technology, and medical device and diagnostic companies in connection with significant strategic transactions, including tender offers, public and private mergers, stock and asset purchases, and licensing transactions. Noteworthy engagements have included:

• The successful defense of Depomed (Assertio) in the attempted hostile takeover by Horizon Pharma Plc, initially valued by Horizon at $3 billion.
• The representation of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical in its sale of two a Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Vouchers awarded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
• The representation of Assertio Therapeutics in a licensing and collaboration transaction involving the commercialization of certain specialty pharmaceutical products, followed by a sale of related assets.
• The representation of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in its $315 million merger with Inotek Pharmaceuticals.
• The representation of UCLA in the monetization of two royalty streams, including one sale with a transaction valued at $1.145 billion, which was the largest monetization transaction ever by an academic institution.
• The representation of Silicon Graphics International (SGI) in the sale to Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
• The representation of Lazard as financial advisor in Alexion’s acquisition of Synageva for $8.3 billion.
• The representation of Lazard as financial advisor in a $500 million cross-border merger-of-equals.
• The representation of a Fortune 500 technology company in the sale of a subsidiary to a private equity consortium in a transaction valued at $1.3 billion.
• The acquisition and in-license from Novartis and Roche of assets and intellectual property rights to their RNAi platforms.
• The sale of global rights to an approved antiviral drug approved for use in the hospital setting.
• The acquisition and disposition of broad technology platforms, as well as rights to individual products and drugs in the United States and globally, including a recent transaction involving the establishment of a strategic collaboration and license agreement in the cardiovascular space, coupled with an equity investment, valued at more than $670 million.

Royalty Monetization Transactions

Mr. Murr also has significant experience in royalty monetization transactions, representing both purchasers and sellers of royalty entitlements, including synthetic royalty financing transactions. These engagements have included representing academic institutions, corporate licensors, royalty investment funds and hedge funds in a range of royalty financing transactions and structures.

Select Presentations and Press

• Speaker, “How Boards Should Handle Securities Compliance, Corporate Governance and M&A”, Directors Roundtable (Palo Alto)
• “Big Suits – Depomed v. Horizon Pharma”, American Lawyer
• Speaker, “Facilitating Successful Merger & Acquisition Transactions,” ABA / AICPA Summit on Emerging Corporate Governance Trends (Chicago)
• Moderator, “Effective Communication Between Attorneys, Accountants and the Audit Committee,” ABA / AICPA Summit on Emerging Corporate Governance Trends (Chicago)
• Panelist, Berkeley Postdoc Entrepreneur Program (BPEP) Workshop:How to finance your idea (Berkeley)
• Speaker, The Impact of Market Dynamics on Health Care and Pharmaceutical Acquisitions
• Panel Moderator, BIO General Counsels Committee Meeting:  Evolving Issues in BioPharma Collaborations (New York)
• Speaker, Deloitte Tohmatsu Global M&A Seminar:  U.S. Healthcare M&A Overview (Tokyo, Japan)
• Speaker, Korean Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association:  U.S. Healthcare M&A Overview (Seoul, Korea)
• Panel Moderator, BioPharm Partnering Conference:  Structured Transactions in M&A (San Francisco)
• Contingent Value Rights: A Middle Ground in M&A Boom, Daily Journal