Joshua T. Hofheimer

JOSH HOFHEIMER combines two decades of corporate, commercial, and technology law practice with the experience having run a public company to bring his clients focused, practical counsel to help them grow their business and maximize their value and returns. His practice focuses on representing clients in the life sciences, agribusiness and food and information technology sectors. Josh’s work spans a broad array of technology, intellectual property and commercial transactions ranging from agricultural technology to medical devices, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, software, internet and new media transactions and includes developing and implementing business strategies for the commercialization of multiple intellectual property platforms. Notably, he represented Nektar Therapeutics in its multibillion dollar global strategic development and collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb for the commercialization of a combination therapy using BMS and Nektar’s proprietary drugs, and Monsanto Company in its efforts to advance agriculture research and development leveraging gene-editing technology through a joint venture with Pairwise Plants. Josh also has negotiated research, funding and commercialization agreements, licenses and technology spin-outs, as well as developed strategies to exploit proprietary products growing out of the research programs of agri-tech and bio-tech clientele. He also advises clients on general corporate matters.

Josh co-leads the firm’s Global Agribusiness and Food industry group, which has been acknowledged as the only law firm consistently ranked Band 1 in Agribusiness: Global Market Leaders by Chambers Global (2016–2025). Josh is also a member of the firm’s Global Life Sciences Leadership Council. He has been recognized for his work by several publications, including recommendations by LMG Life Sciences as a “Life Sciences Star” in the Corporate category (2013–2024) and IAM Patent 1000 (2025). Managing IP named Josh a California “Transactions Star” in its 2020–2025 editions of IP Stars and a California “IP Star” from 2013–2020. In 2021, Josh accepted the “International Business Advocate of the Year” award on Sidley’s behalf at the Los Angeles Business Journal’s inaugural International Business Forum and Awards.

From 2008–2010, Josh was the CEO/Managing Director of Australia’s first publicly listed ag-biotech company, Hexima Limited (HXL: ASX). While at Hexima, Josh led the company’s successful effort to forge a commercial path for its disease control platform, entering into a development and commercialization agreement with DuPont company, Pioneer Hi-Bred. The company established further commercial relationships with leading agribusinesses, Monsanto and Bayer Crop Science, and Australian research centers.

Prior Sidley work includes representing start-up companies, agriscience companies, convergence technology companies, a semiconductor tooling manufacturer, and broadband Internet content providers for whom Josh has acted as general outside corporate counsel, negotiating business development and strategic agreements such as content syndication agreements, licensing agreements, distribution agreements, e-commerce agreements, marketing and co-promotion agreements, joint venture agreements and web design agreements. He advised Los Angeles County and other large customers on a variety of software related matters, including the county’s acquisition of a new voting system for its election processes, several complex healthcare services systems, and a new multilayered county-wide traffic control system.

Transactional Experience, Agribusiness & Food:

• Ohalo Genetics, a plant genetics company, in an agreement to develop high value strawberries with certain disease resistance through our client’s gene editing platform. This agreement is in partnership with a consortium of researchers and nurseries organized by the State of Florida, led by the agricultural program at the University of Florida.
• Bowery Farming in the:
  
  • Sponsored research agreement (SRA) with the University of Arkansas for the development of genetic markers for Pythium resistance in spinach, and a breeding program for new Pythium resistant spinach varieties.
  • Sweet basil seed genomics screening program and commercial co-development agreement with Rutgers University, which has one of the largest (and only) basil breeding programs in the United States.
  • Collaboration with a direct to farmer conventional, certified organic and controlled environment agriculture seed company, for the development of lettuce and specialty crop seed varieties optimized for indoor, vertical farming environments, with exclusive commercial optionality on new varieties.
• Sound Agriculture in the:
  
  • Formation of its strategic partnership with Syngenta to explore opportunities to decrease nitrogen fertilizer use in China while maintaining on-farm productivity utilizing Sound Agriculture’s flagship product SOURCE.
  • Formation of its strategic partnership with the Mosaic Company to develop and distribute a nutrient efficiency product that will boost yields across major row crops and improve soil health.
  • Exclusive commercial license agreement with Koch Biological Solutions, LLC (Koch) for Koch to commercialize and market products containing Sound Agriculture’s flagship yield enhancement technology for foliar and in-furrow application on a broad set of crops, including all major row crops.
• Tata Consumer Products (NYSE: TATACONSUM) in its acquisition of food and beverage company Organic India.
• Boost Biomes, a U.S.-based food and agriculture biotech startup, on a research development and commercialization agreement with Yara International ASA to co-develop a new product to enhance crops' rate of nutrient uptake from the soil.
• Clara Foods, a San Francisco-based cellular agriculture company using biofermentation to selectively design and manufacture animal-free, poultry protein, on the structuring and negotiation of a joint development and commercialization agreement with Ingredion.
• Monsanto Company in its efforts to advance agriculture research and development leveraging gene-editing technology through a joint venture with Pairwise Plants.
• Brightloom on its technology platform license with Starbucks, who granted Brightloom a worldwide license to Starbucks’ proprietary mobile ordering, loyalty and customer engagement technology platform, “Digital Flywheel.” 
• The Climate Corporation in its Digital Ag Alliance agreement with AGCO.
• Monsanto Company in the establishment of a joint venture with Remington Holding Company LLC, called Innovative Seed Solutions, LLC, focused initially on sorghum development. In a related transaction, a subsidiary of Remington purchased Monsanto’s sorghum production assets in the United States.
• Radiant Genomics in an R&D collaboration with DOW AgroSciences. The collaboration combines the proprietary metagenomic and engineering-biology technologies from Radiant Genomics with Dow AgroSciences’ natural products discovery and product development capabilities to deliver new products from naturally derived chemistries.
• Monsanto Company in its BioAg Alliance with Novozymes to discover, develop and sell sustainable microbial solutions to improve and protect crop yields for global broad-acre crops, fruits, and vegetables.
• Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture in the structuring and spin-out of its crop insurance and services business, Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise, Ltd. (ACRE), into a standalone entity based in Kenya, East Africa. 
• NexSteppe, Inc. in its collaboration with DuPont to develop advanced feedstocks for biofuels, biopower and biobased products. The collaboration focuses on the development of new sweet sorghum and high bio-mass sorghum hybrids and DuPont, through its Pioneer Hi-Bred business, will provide knowledge, resources, and advanced technologies to help the company accelerate the breeding and commercialization of these crops in the U.S. and Brazil. 
• Monsanto Company in a jointly-funded multi-year research, collaboration and exclusive commercialization agreement with BASF AG to develop high-yield and stress tolerant traits for corn, soy, cotton, and canola.

Transactional Experience, Life Sciences:

• Radiology Partners, a leading technology-enabled radiology practice in the U.S., and its subsidiary Mosaic Clinical Technologies, in the acquisition of Cognita Imaging, Inc.
• Nektar Therapeutics in its US$90 million sale of its manufacturing facility and reagent supply business to Ampersand Capital Partners.
• Represented Chong Kun Dang Corp. (CKD) in a potentially US$1.3 billion out-licensing of its proprietary therapeutic to Novartis AG, granting Novartis the rights to develop and commercialize CKD-510, an HDAC6 inhibitor.
• EpimAb Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery and development of multi-specific antibodies for diseases with high unmet need, in the creation of Vignette Bio, a joint venture with Foresite Capital to fund the development of EpimAb’s proprietary T-Cell engager. EpimAb received cash and equity and is exclusively licensing its therapeutic for development and commercialization outside China.
• Prothena Biosciences Limited, a late-stage clinical biotechnology company with a robust pipeline of investigational therapeutics built on protein dysregulation expertise, in an exclusive global out license agreement license to Bristol Myers Squibb for PRX019, a potential treatment of neurodegenerative diseases with an undisclosed target.
• Leading consumer healthcare company in numerous switches of pharmaceutical to branded over -the -counter products.
• Biotechnology company, Lyell Immunopharma in a strategic partnership with PACT Pharma to jointly develop and test next generation personalized anticancer T-cell therapies against solid tumors.
• Radiology Partners, the leading radiology practice in the U.S., in the formation of a strategic alliance with Israeli-based Aidoc, the leading a provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for medical imaging, to offer unparalleled AI capabilities to its hospitals and health systems, and to accelerate the adoption of AI as the standard of care in radiology.
• ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage, immuno-oncology company in South Korea, on an exclusive license agreement with 3D Medicines, Inc., a China-based biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation immuno-oncology drugs, for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of ImmuneOncia’s monoclonal antibody (IMC-002) in Greater China.
• GI Innovation on an exclusive regional licensing agreement with Simcere for the development and commercialization of a class of drug candidates for the treatment of solid tumors.
• Atomwise, a leader in using artificial intelligence (AI) for small molecule discovery, in a research collaboration agreement with Bridge Biotherapeutics (KOSDAQ: 288330), a clinical stage biotech company, to launch up to 13 small molecule programs across multiple therapeutic areas using structure-based AI technology for drug discovery.
• GlaxoSmithKline in its announced collaboration with and equity investment in Lyell Immunopharma, a San Francisco biotechnology company, to develop new technologies to improve cell therapies for cancer patients. The collaboration will apply Lyell’s technologies to further strengthen GSK’s cell therapy pipeline, including GSK3377794, which targets the NY-ESO-1 antigen that is expressed across multiple cancer types.
• Nektar Therapeutics in its in multibillion dollar global strategic development and commercialization collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) for Nektar’s CD122-biased agonist, NKTR-214. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will jointly develop and commercialize NKTR-214 in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo (nivolumab) and Opdivo plus Yervoy (ipilimumab) in more than 20 indications across nine tumor types — including melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer, bladder and triple negative breast cancer — as well as potential combinations with other anticancer agents from either of the respective companies and/or third parties.
• Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, in a worldwide collaboration and license agreement with Adaptive Biotechnologies, an immune-driven medicine company, to develop, manufacture, and commercialize novel neoantigen directed T-cell therapies for the treatment of a broad range of cancers.
• Venus Medtech on a collaboration with Pi-Cardia, a global leader in the development of non-implant catheter-based solutions for treating heart valve calcification, to bring Pi-Cardia's Leaflex™ technology to China.
• Yuhan Corporation in its:
  • Joint development and licensing agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim, for the development of dual agonist innovative drugs with the activity of GLP-1 and FGF21 to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and related liver disease. 
  • Licensing and collaboration agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. to co-develop novel therapeutic candidates for the treatment of patients with advanced fibrosis due to NASH.
  • Licensing agreement with Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson, for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of lazertinib, a non-small cell lung cancer drug candidate.
• Nektar Therapeutics in a strategic collaboration with Eli Lilly to co-develop NKTR-358, a novel immunological therapy discovered by Nektar. NKTR-358 is a possible first-in-class therapeutic that has the potential to treat a number of autoimmune and other chronic inflammatory conditions.
• Evaxion Biotech in an exclusive license and research agreement with Moderna Therapeutics to provide bioinformatics and preclinical research support to advance early development efforts for a novel messenger RNA infectious disease vaccine against an undisclosed infectious disease target.
• GlaxoSmithKline plc in its announced collaboration with Avalon Ventures to fund and launch up to 10 early-stage life sciences companies in San Diego. Sidley provided counsel to GSK on the organization of the master collaboration and funding agreements, as well as structuring the downstream options for acquiring the various portfolio companies. Under the agreements, GSK will provide up to US$465 million in seed funding and payments upon the achievement of certain development milestones and Avalon will provide funding of up to US$30 million. 
• Leading U.S. pharmaceutical company in a development, commercialization and manufacturing agreement with a Japanese pharmaceutical company to launch our client’s product in Japan.

Transactional Experience, Information Technology:

• MasterCard in agreements for the development, distribution and hosting of multi-function platforms for customer and cardholder loyalty, travel and small business focused suite of products and services. 
• County of Los Angeles and San Diego County, in multiple US$20-million-plus information technology procurement and outsourcing agreements for critical county services, including voting systems, assessor property tax management systems, 911 response management systems, prison health systems, and mental health patient management and reimbursement systems. Most recently, Josh represented County of Los Angeles in the procurement of its next generation voting system, Voting Solutions for All People, through a series of commercial contracts valued at more than US$250 million in the aggregate.

Financings Experience, Agribusiness and Food Tech:

• Sound Agriculture Company in:
  • US$75 million Series D equity investment.
  • Series C Preferred Equity Financing.
  • US$12 million Series B financing.
• C16 Biosciences, Inc. on its US$20 million Series A funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
• Bayer CropScience on its investment in NewLeaf's Series D Funding.
• Paine Schwartz Partners LLC in a growth equity investment in Advanced Agrilytics, LLC.
• Paine Schwartz Partners, LLC, a global leader in sustainable food chain investing, in its strategic investment through its Paine Schwartz Food Chain Fund IV in MS Biotech Holdings, Inc., a provider of natural, proprietary products to the beef feedlot, and dairy markets. 
• Trace Genomics in its US$13 million Series A financing.
• Monsanto Growth Ventures in its investment in NewLeaf Symbiotics’ US$24 million Series C financing.
• Radiant Genomics in Dow Agricultural Science’s convertible note financing.
• AMERRA Capital Management, LLC in a joint venture and growth equity investment in Norbest, Inc. and Moroni Feed Company, turkey growing and processing companies.
• Terramera, Inc. in its US$11 million Series B financing.
• Finistere Ventures and Seed2Growth in their investment in Shopwell’s US$2.4 million Series A financing.
• CHEVOO in their US$4.5 million Series A financing.
• Ripe.io in their convertible note financings.
• Green & Grow, Inc. in their US$6 million Series B financing.
• Improved Nature, LLC in their Series A financing.
• Global Growables, Inc. in their convertible note financings.

• Board Member, Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law
• Board of Directors Member, Australian Center for Plant Functional Genomics (2010 – 2014)