Sophia Iams

SOPHIA IAMS focuses her practice on complex intellectual property and commercial transactions for life sciences companies, including strategic collaborations, licensing agreements, and mergers and acquisitions. She leverages her educational background in biology and biotechnology entrepreneurship, as well as her prior professional experience in life sciences consulting, to strategically assist and advise on client transactions.

Sophia earned her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she was a McAuliffe Scholar. While in law school, she was a legal intern for Verily Life Sciences as well as a student attorney with the Internet & Intellectual Property Justice Clinic, providing counseling on patent, trademark, and licensing matters.

Prior to attending law school, Sophia worked as a consultant in competitive intelligence for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare clients.

Life Sciences/Healthcare Transactions

• Axsome Therapeutics in its Acquisition of Global Rights to Balipodect from Takeda.
• Roche in numerous public and private acquisitions, including Roche's acquisition of 89bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: ETNB), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of liver and cardiometabolic diseases, for up to US$3.5 billion, including CVRs; and Roche's acquisition of Poseida Therapeutics (Nasdaq: PSTX), clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering donor-derived CAR-T cell therapies, for up to US$1.5 billion, including CVRs, among others.
• GE HealthCare in its US$2.3 billion acquisition of Intelerad.
• AdvanCell in its collaboration and exclusive licensing agreement with 48Hour Discovery to develop a novel peptide-based Lead-212 (212Pb) radiotherapeutic, under which AdvanCell obtained exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the program.
• Astria Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATXS), a biopharmaceutical company focused on allergic and immunologic diseases, in its sale to BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCRX) for US$700 million in cash and BioCryst stock.
• Vera Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERA) in its exclusive license agreement with Stanford University for VT-109, a next-generation fusion protein targeting BAFF and APRIL.
• Ocuphire Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCUP), a clinical-stage ophthalmic biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of patients with retinal and refractive eye disorders, in an all-stock acquisition of Opus Genetics, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company for inherited retinal diseases (IRDs).

Technology/Other Transactions

• Thompson Street Capital Partners in its acquisition of Karpel Computer Systems, Inc.
• Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ: GLDD) in its US$1.5 billion take-private acquisition by Saltchuk Resources, Inc.
• Ancala in its acquisition of a U.S. chemical infrastructure portfolio from Hexion, an American Securities portfolio company.
• J.S. Held LLC in its acquisition of MorrisAnderson.
• Thompson Street Capital Partners in its acquisition of Bubbakoo’s Burritos.
• Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. in its US$7.7 billion take-private acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DNB).