140. Pete Zorn, Biotech Business and Legal Executive

Show Notes:

Pete Zorn, a lawyer and biotech executive, spent nine years in North Carolina, attending law school at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill. He moved back to the Boston area with his wife and child where he stayed with his law firm, working remotely before taking an in-house position with one of his clients. He took the company public and stayed there for 11 years. He has since worked with three other biotech companies in various business and legal capacities, and is currently the president and Chief Legal Officer of Genevant.

The Leading Nucleic Acid Delivery Company in the World

Genevant specializes in lipid nanoparticles, which help protect and deliver nucleic acids like mRNA in the body to do its job. The company partners with biotech and pharma companies worldwide. Pete explains that nucleic acids, which store and express genetic material, can address diseases by encoding for a gene or addressing gene deficiencies, defects, or overexpression. However, nucleic acids can degrade in the body if not properly protected, making lipid nanoparticles an emerging mode of delivering nucleic acids. He talks about the concept of a lipid nanoparticle, which is a small fat bubble that encapsulates or envelops nucleic acid, protecting it from enzymes in the body and directing it to the desired tissue or cell type. If not protected, nucleic acids like mRNAs would be degraded in the body before they can have their intended effect. Genevant is a pioneer of lipid nanoparticles and owns a substantial amount of intellectual property in the space. They manufacture only at a research scale, but they license the technology to companies, who will manufacture the products in their plants using Genevant's technology.

Partnership Deals in Biotech

Pete explains that, unlike mergers and acquisition deals where negotiation is mostly about price, in life science collaborations you negotiate everything, including sharing intellectual property and responsibility, how parties will work together, and, of course, price.  It’s an ongoing relationship that is being negotiated. The most challenging part is negotiating the deal if the partnership comes to an end. This is to ensure that the parties are in the right place when the collaboration ends. Pete discusses the various aspects of a biotech partnership, including ongoing intellectual property (IP) development, responsibility, allocation, and governance issues. He mentions two main categories: consideration of licensing and payment for technology, and the allocation of intellectual property.

Genevant’s Technology Platform

Genevant, a company that expands its technology platform through these deals, owns improvements to their platform. Special arrangements may be included for those that require the payload or partner's technology. These details are crucial in negotiating and time management. In addition to licensing and payment, partnering arrangements involve governance, confidentiality representations, commitments, and risk allocation. The agreed amounts can change depending on external factors and must be carefully negotiated.

Joining the Biotech World

Pete discusses his career in biotech, highlighting the advantages of being with a smaller, growing company compared to working with a larger, established company. He shares his first deal with a big pharma company in his 20s, where he had to negotiate a complex deal for a company that desperately needed to make the deal happen. He talks about the challenges involved, including the human challenge of establishing trust. The company needed to define the rights they were giving to another company while retaining enough space to allow them to work with other companies as well. The technical challenge was to draw fine lines in the constantly evolving scientific area, while also allowing them room to work independently. The deal was a nine-month negotiation and a 300-page contract, but it was a seminal moment for his company, which has since merged out of existence.

Drug Development Success

Pete talks about drug development and successes achieved. He shares a story of a company that had a successful phase two, which led to collaboration with a big pharma company. However, the company subsequently endured a disastrous phase three, which resulted in a dramatic downturn in stock price for the company. Despite this, the company was not sued, which he takes pride in. He emphasizes the importance of taking risks in drug development, as it allows the company to succeed and advance. He approaches the legal side of his job by finding ways to accomplish business objectives while managing that risk.

Career Turning Points

Pete also shares some turning points in his career. He continues to do deal making and is currently involved in intellectual property litigation related to lipid nanoparticles used in COVID vaccines. The conversation turns to the world of chief legal officers in biotech companies, specifically in the Boston area. Pete shares his experience working remotely for a North Carolina company and then with a European company, which allowed him to build networks and interact with other professionals. He also shares his life outside of work, raising two children – including a son with autism – and focusing on their well-being. He emphasizes that autism is a spectrum, with no two kids being the same. He mentions that there are different challenges for parents of children with autism and offers a few words of advice to parents in that situation.

Influential Harvard Professors and Courses

Pete, who was a psychology major at Harvard, mentions his favorite class was a civil rights class with the knowledgeable, charismatic and powerful speaker, Julian Bond. He mentions how he took a year off before going to Law school, and how happenstance played a role in his career in the life sciences industry. 

Timestamps:

03:48: Pete Zorn's Role at Genevant and Nucleic Acid Delivery 

08:13: Complex Partnerships in Biotech 

14:59: Pete Zorn's Entry into Biotech and Key Deals 

22:11: Challenges and Successes in Biotech 

27:14: Pete Zorn's Career and Personal Life 

29:06: Advice for Parents of Children with Autism

37:07: Reflections on Harvard 

Links:

Website: https://www.genevant.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-zorn-8b63391/

 

Featured Non-profit:

The featured non-profit of this week’s episode is the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles  recommended by Cara Familian Natterson who reports:

“ Hi. This is Cara Familian Natterson, class of 1992. The featured nonprofit of this episode of The 92 Report is Children's Hospital Los Angeles, also known as CHLA. I joined the CHLA Board of Directors last year, but I've been working with the doctors at this amazing hospital for decades. CHLA isn't just one of the top 10 children's hospitals in the country, it's also the only one that is a safety net hospital with more than 70% of their patients on medicaid. They will never turn a child away, regardless of a family's financial situation or immigration status. If you want to learn more, go to C, H, L, A, dot, O, R, G, and now here is Will Bachman with this week's episode.”

To learn more about their work, visit: CHLA.org.