Asher M. Rubin

ASHER RUBIN is co-leader of Sidley’s global Technology and Life Sciences Transactions practice. He advises publicly held and private companies across the life sciences life cycle, venture capital and private equity funds, and academic medical centers on transactional matters within all segments of the life sciences industry. Asher provides legal counsel and strategic advice on licensing, collaboration, joint venture, and merger and acquisition transactions. Additionally, Asher has extensive experience in capital raising, including venture capital financing, public financing, including IPOs, secondary offerings and PIPE transactions, and royalty based financing. Asher regularly advises public and private life sciences company boards of directors on matters related to corporate governance. He advises clients and has deal experience that includes the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Asher provides practical guidance to CEOs, CFOs, GCs, and other executives on their everyday legal matters, which include board governance, compensation, and employment matters. He regularly serves as a senior advisor to C-level executives and in-house counsel and as an outside general counsel for clients with limited in-house resources.

“Asher understands complex situations well and draws from tremendous experience and knowledge to provide the best advice possible.”
Chambers USA 2025

“Asher leverages his prior in-house legal work to provide excellent and business forward advice.”
Chambers USA 2025

• Chambers Global, Life Sciences: Corporate/Commercial (USA), 2020–2025
• Chambers USA, Life Sciences: Corporate/Commercial (Nationwide), 2016–2025
• Chambers USA, Corporate/M&A (Maryland), 2017–2025
• Chambers USA, Startups & Emerging Companies (Nationwide), 2022–2025
• Lexology Index, Life Sciences Thought Leader, 2023
• Legal 500 U.S., Industry Focus: Healthcare: Life Sciences, Recommended, 2020
• Legal 500 U.S., Healthcare: Life Sciences, “Hall of Fame,” 2018–2020, 2025
• Legal 500 U.S., Healthcare: Life Sciences, “Leading Lawyer,” 2012–2020
• Managing IP – IP Stars, Maryland “Transactions Star,” 2025
• Managing IP – IP Stars, United States (National) “Transactions Star,” 2025
• The Best Lawyers in America, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, 2021
• Acritas Stars Independently Rated Lawyers, “Acritas Star,” 2017–2020
• LMG Life Sciences, “Life Sciences Star,” 2012–2024
• Super Lawyers, Business/Corporate (Maryland), 2021

Prior to joining Sidley, Asher was a partner at another global law firm where he led the Life Sciences and Healthcare industry team for more than 10 years. Asher also served as in-house counsel and ultimately general counsel of a publicly traded, fully integrated pharmaceutical company.

• NextCure, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to discovering and developing novel, first-in-class and best-in-class therapies to treat cancer, in a strategic partnership with Simcere Zaiming to develop SIM0505, a novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting CDH6 (cadherin-6 or K-cadherin) for the treatment of solid tumors.
• Vytyl (Vita) Health Management in its acquisition by Valera Health.
• Alloy Therapeutics, in a strategic collaboration with Sanofi to develop an antisense oligonucleotide drug for a central nervous system target. Under the terms of the agreement, Alloy will receive up to US$27.5 million in upfront and near-term preclinical milestone payments, with potential total payments exceeding US$400 million, including milestone payments and royalties.
• BigHat Biosciences, Inc. in strategic collaborations with Eli Lilly and Janssen Biotech to advance AI-driven antibody therapeutics.
• Sagard Healthcare Partners in providing up to US$250 million in non-dilutive financings to Nuvation Bio Inc. (NYSE: NUVB), a global biopharmaceutical company tackling some of the greatest unmet needs in oncology.
• 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.
• Radiant Biotherapeutics, a preclinical biotechnology company developing an antibody platform to deliver transformative therapies for patients facing life-changing disease, in its US$35 million Series A financing.
• HealthCare Royalty in the negotiation of a US$250 million non-dilutive note purchase agreement with OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK) secured by OPKO’s profit share payments from Pfizer Inc. received pursuant to its license agreement relating to NGENLA™, a once-weekly treatment marketed to treat pediatric growth hormone deficiency.
• OMERS Life Sciences in the $650 million strategic financing of Verona Pharm plc (NASDAQ: VRNA) together with funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., consisting of up to US$400 million in term loans and up to US$250 million in funding from the sale of a redeemable capped interest in future ensifentrine-related revenue.
• OMERS Life Sciences in its acquisition of a capped, tiered, declining royalty on direct annual net sales of ORLADEYO® (berotralstat) from BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for US$150 million.
• OMERS Life Sciences in the negotiation of a definitive credit facility agreement for BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. with a syndicate of lenders for up to US$750 million in financing.
• Sagard Healthcare in purchasing a 1% royalty in net sales of Tyvaso DPI® (treprostinil) inhalation powder from MannKind Corporation (Nasdaq: MNKD), in exchange for up to US$200 million, including the purchase price of US$150 million and an additional potential milestone payment of up to US$50 million.
• Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAX) in an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Tenacia Biotechnology (Shanghai) Company, Ltd. for the development and commercialization of ulixacaltamide for the treatment of essential tremor in Greater China.
• Shinobi Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of immune-evasive iPS-T cell therapies, in its US$51 million Series A financing.
• Novo Nordisk Inc. (NYSE: NVO) in its collaboration with Evotec SE (NASDAQ: EVO) to launch LAB eN², a translational drug discovery accelerator that aims to nurture early research from academic institutions into novel therapeutics. The focus of the collaboration is to accelerate the translation of academic ideas to therapeutic product candidates in the cardiometabolic space.
• The underwriters in the upsized US$198.7 million initial public offering by Tyra Biosciences, Inc., a precision oncology company focused on developing purpose-built therapies to overcome tumor resistance and improve outcomes for patients with cancer.
• Interius BioTherapeutics, a preclinical stage gene therapy company developing a paradigm-shifting platform for in vivo cell-specific gene delivery, in its US$76 million Series A financing.
• Biolojic Design in the formation of Aulos; Lilly collaboration and Nektar collaboration.
• Acrivon in collaboration with Lilly.
• SciNeuro in its license agreement with Lilly.
• Delfi Diagnostics in its US$101M series A offering.
• AavantiBio in its US$107M series A offering. 
• Pyxis Oncology in its license with LegoChem and Pfizer.
• Fairmont Funds in connection with several strategic transactions for its portfolio companies. 
• Zenas Biopharma in its license with Viridian. 
• Merck in connection with its license with IDRI.
• Lesaffre in its strategic collaboration and investment with Recombia.
• Spectrum Pharmaceuticals on the sale of its portfolio of seven FDA-approved hematology and oncology products to Acrotech Biopharma L.L.C.
• OPKO, Inc. on its development and commercial licensing agreement with Pfizer, Inc.
• OPKO on its licensing agreement with Japan Tobacco for the international development and marketing of Rayaldee.
• Intellia Therapeutics in its research collaboration and license agreement with GEMoaB to discover and develop allogeneic cellular immunotherapies for cancers and inflammatory diseases.
• Daiichi Sankyo on its joint collaboration with AstraZeneca to develop and commercialize Daiichi Sankyo's DS-1062, a potential new medicine to treat multiple tumor types.
• Kiadis Pharma in connection with the acquisition of CytoSen Therapeutics, Inc.
• Galera Therapeutics on the development of drugs targeting oxygen metabolic pathways in connection with an US$80m royalty financing with Clarus (later acquired by Blackstone).
• NextCure in connection with its formation, US$67m Series A financing, IPO, and follow on offering.
• NextCure on its multi-year collaboration with Eli Lilly focused on the discovery and development of immuno-oncology therapies.
• NextCure in its license and sponsored research agreements with Yale University.
• Exact Sciences Corp. on its collaboration agreement with Pfizer to co-promote Cologuard, the first and only FDA-approved non-invasive stool DNA screening test for colorectal cancer.
• TESARO on its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
• TESARO in its US$101m Series B financing, its IPO, all of its follow-on equity financings, and US$165m notes financing.
• TESARO in connection with its acquisition of rights to its niraparib PARP inhibitor, ALK inhibitor, and checkpoint inhibitor programs.
• TESARO in its collaboration and license agreement with Janssen Biotech involving niraparib for the treatment of prostate cancer.
• TESARO in its exclusive licensing agreement with Takeda for the commercialization and clinical development of niraparib in Japan.
• Amplimmune, Inc. in connection with its sale for up to US$500m to AstraZeneca.
• New Enterprise Associates and Apple Tree Partners in several venture capital financings of companies at various stages of development.
• The University of Pennsylvania in connection with its exclusive license and collaboration of CAR-T technologies to Novartis.
• Immune Design Corp., in connection with its exclusive licenses to a pharmaceutical company for food allergies and HSV.
• Braeburn Pharmaceuticals on its US$110m mezzanine round of financing led by Wellington Management Company.
• Incyte Corp. in its license and collaboration agreement with MacroGenics relating to an anti-PD-1 antibody.
• Vivus on its acquisition of Pancreaze from Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its acquisition of Willow BioPharma.
• Fibrocell Science, Inc. on their acquisition by Castle Creek Pharmaceutical, Inc. with a total transaction value of approximately US$63.3m.

Some of the above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.

• Member, Maryland State Bar Association
• Board of Directors, Shriver Hall Concert Series
• Board of Directors, Sinai Hospital (past member)
• Board of Directors, Lifebridge Innovation (past member)