On March 2, 2021, WuXi AppTec, a leading global provider of R&D- and manufacturing-enabling services in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, announced that it has completed its acquisition of OXGENE, a pioneering United Kingdom-based contract research and development organization that designs and develops scalable gene therapy technologies. The acquisition enables WuXi AppTec to offer its customers end-to-end support in the creation and development of cutting-edge cell and gene therapies for patients in need worldwide. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented WuXi AppTec in the transaction, in collaboration with Taylor Wessing, which served as UK counsel.  

OXGENE will become a fully owned subsidiary of WuXi Advanced Therapies (WuXi ATU), WuXi AppTec’s cell and gene therapy contract testing, development, and manufacturing organization business unit. WuXi ATU's integrated platforms transform the development, testing, manufacturing, and commercialization of cell and gene therapy products and accelerate their time to market. OXGENE, which will retain its name, will be WuXi ATU's first facility in Europe and will further enhance these industry-leading capabilities.

The Wilson Sonsini team that represented WuXi AppTec in the transaction included the following:

Corporate
Barry Taylor
Kathy H. Ku
Nikkisha Smith
Rui Ke

London Corporate
Stacy Kim
Amanda Pollard
Jose Campos

Hong Kong Corporate
Draco Ng

Patents and Innovations
Karen Wong
Richard Wang
Adrian Barker
Seth Lee

Brandon Tavshanjian

Technology Transactions
Alex Key
Nguyen Pham
Miruna Predescu
Kexi Wang

Regulatory
Stephen Heifetz
Nimit Dhir

For more information, please see WuXi AppTec’s press release.