Mathilda Davidson Legal Director

Mathilda Davidson

Mathilda Davidson helps clients to exploit and protect their intellectual property (IP) across a range of different markets and sectors. A transactional IP specialist, she is at home in the complex world of licensing, technology transfer and R&D in life sciences, high tech and manufacturing. She advises on the full spectrum of IP transactional issues in the life sciences sector and wider IP industries.

Mathilda advises companies and research institutions of all sizes on product development, collaboration and licensing deals. She has also spent time on secondment in the legal team of Cancer Research Technology (part of Cancer Research UK), where she advised on R&D partnerships with the international research community and commercialisation deals with industry, including an innovative international collaboration with public cancer registries around the world and the UN's International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Mathilda has been identified as a "rising star" by Managing Intellectual Property in 2018-2022.

Experience

Mathilda has extensive transactional IP experience, including advising:

• AstraZeneca on a range of transactions, including its $8.5 billion global strategic oncology collaboration with Merck to co-develop and co-commercialise AstraZeneca's Lynparza (olaparib) for multiple cancer types; a collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited to jointly develop and commercialise MEDI1341, an alpha-synuclein antibody currently in development as a potential treatment for Parkinson's disease; and a collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc which builds on the recent discovery from the Regeneron Genetics Center® of rare genetic mutations in the GPR75 gene associated with protection against obesity and on early joint research initiated soon after discovery of the target so that potential treatments can be developed as quickly as possible. The Lynparza transaction also won the Scrip licensing deal of the year for 2018.
• arGEN-X on its a worldwide exclusive license to RuiYi (formerly Anaphore) to develop in China and commercialize ARGX-109, a novel anti-IL-6 monoclonal antibody discovered and developed by arGEN-X.
• Eisai Co., Ltd. on an agreement to divest its rights for the antiepileptic agent Zonegran® (zonisamide) in Europe and other regions to Advanz Pharma.
• Sosei Heptares on a range of transactions, including collaborations with GSK in the field of immune disorders of the digestive system, Allergan in the field of major neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and the spin out to Tempero Bio (a collaboration between Aditum Bio and Sosei Heptares) in the field of neurological diseases.
• Oxford BioTherapetuics Limited on a range of transactions, including a collaboration with Kite Pharmaceutics Inc (a Gilead company) in relation to novel oncology targets and an alliance with Boehringer Ingelheim to discover additional selective targets for strategic cancer indications to deliver first-in-class treatments for cancer patients.
• Aegerion Pharmaceuticals on an exclusive licence of its Lojuxta® (lomitapide) product to Amryt Pharma in Europe and EMEA. Lojuxta® is one of very few treatments for the rare disease Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia.
• Crescendo Biologics Limited on a clinical trial and option agreement with Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development, for the development of novel bispecific immunotherapies in the treatment of cancers of highly unmet medical need.
• A multinational consumer product company on their scientific agreements (CDAs, MTAs, collaboration agreements, service agreements, student sponsorship etc) with suppliers, universities, institutions and CROs.
• While on secondment at Cancer Research Technology (part of Cancer Research UK), leading on R&D partnerships with the international research community and commercialisation deals with industry, including the spin-out of Storm Therapeutics in the field of epigenetics and an innovative international collaboration with public cancer registries around the world and the UN's International Agency for Research on Cancer
• Working for a leading UK food manufacturer as part of its legal team, advising on the spectrum of IP issues facing a consumer brands business including licensing projects, effective management and protection of IP assets, new product development, brand extensions and consumer marketing.
• Working with a multinational consumer goods company as part of its advertising law team, advising on clearance and ASA complaints in relation to its stable of "billion-Euro" brands.
• Working for a leading international humanitarian charity as part of its legal team, advising on issues faced by its trading, policy and operational divisions.