January 23, 2008
On January 22, Willkie client Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held biopharmaceutical company CoGenesys, Inc. for $400 million. The deal was reported widely in the press, including the January 22 edition of The Wall Street Journal. With a broad based biotechnology platform, CoGenesys focuses on the development of peptide- and protein-based medicines. It was established in 2005 as a division within Human Genome Sciences Inc. to concentrate on early drug development and was spun off as an independent company in June 2006. Headquartered in Israel, Teva is among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world and is the leading generic pharmaceutical company. The transaction was handled by a multidisciplinary team at Willkie, including partners Jeffrey Hochman, Peter Jakes, Christopher Peters and David Rubinsky; special counsel Jonathan Konoff and David Park; and associates Bret Cohen, Scott Eisenberg, Jeremy Feit, Jordan Messinger, Danielle Scalzo and Kenneth Sicklick.
