Cooleybeck

Sarah Cooleybeck

Partner
Boston

I help innovative life sciences companies get the best possible terms in their licenses and other commercial agreements.

With 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry and deep knowledge of intellectual property law, Sarah Cooleybeck helps her clients protect their IP and achieve business goals in their patent and technology licenses, strategic collaborations, and a full range of research, development, manufacturing, and services agreements.

Sarah offers practical, business-focused advice to companies developing and commercializing pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices, drug-device combinations, drug delivery platforms, diagnostics, artificial intelligence, digital therapeutics, gene therapy, vaccines, synthetic biology, and other technology.

For companies spinning out from or partnering with academic institutions, Sarah negotiates options, sponsored research agreements, material transfer agreements, subawards, and licenses. Once emerging companies have a product ready to take into development, she efficiently manages the agreements necessary to get into the clinic and to market, including evaluation, development, master services (MSA), CDMO/process development, CRO, clinical trial, supply, quality, commercialization, and distribution agreements. When a company is entering into a strategic partnership, her extensive experience and attention to detail ensure that complex IP, financial, and liability terms align with the client’s goals.

Sarah stays abreast of current market terms and proposes creative solutions when business goals require “outside the box” thinking. Her business advice benefits from her familiarity with the regulatory environment in which life sciences companies operate, and from her prior experience litigating patent infringement and licensing disputes. She is transparent about costs and timing, using regular status calls, budget updates, and other project management tools to make sure legal work meets expectations. 

Education

  • Harvard Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1995
  • University of Michigan, A.B., high honors, 1990

Bar and Court Admissions

BAR ADMISSIONS
  • Massachusetts
COURT ADMISSIONS
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Experience

  • Lantheus Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: LNTH), a leading radiopharmaceutical-focused company, in its exclusive licensing agreement with GE HealthCare (NASDAQ: GEHC) to develop, manufacture, and commercialize Lantheus’ piflufolastat F18 (marketed as PYLARIFY® in the U.S.) in Japan
  • Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) in multiple matters, including:
    • a collaboration and license agreement with Gensaic, Inc. to discover tissue-targeting ligands and develop new therapeutic candidates to treat cardiometabolic disease, with upfront and milestone payments of up to $354 million per target, plus tiered royalties
    • a collaboration, development and license agreement with Aspect Biosystems to develop up to four bioprinted tissue products for the treatment of diabetes and obesity, with $75 million upfront and up to $650 million in milestones per product, plus tiered royalties
  • Represented LigaChem Biosciences (KRX: 141080), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company in:
    • two transactions involving the license of LigaChem technology to Ono Pharmaceutical (TSE/TYO: 4528), to grow Ono’s oncology portfolio:
      • an exclusive license to LCB97, a pre-clinical stage antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) aimed at being a first-in-class drug in the field of solid tumors, for upfront and milestone payments of up to US$700 million, plus tiered royalties; and
      • a research collaboration and license agreement to generate novel ADC candidates leveraging LigaChem’s ConjuAll™️ ADC platform, granting Ono an exclusive global right to ADC candidates to be generated against multiple targets selected by Ono, for a target exclusivity fee, milestone payments, and tiered royalties; 
    • two exclusive worldwide antibody licensing deals with NovaRock Biotherapeutics for ADC Drug Development; and
    • a worldwide in-licensing transaction with Go Therapeutics for a new antibody platform designed for the development of ADCs.
  • Biotechnology ecosystem company Alloy Therapeutics in a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with Takeda to develop and commercialize the latter’s induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) driven CAR-T cell platform (iCAR-T) and CAR-NK platform (iCAR-NK) for cell therapy in oncology indications
  • Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, in its acquisition of StrideBio’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid discovery and engineering platform assets
  • MedRhythms in a license agreement with Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB) to develop and commercialize MR-004, an investigational prescription digital therapeutic for the potential treatment of gait deficits in multiple sclerosis, for $120.5 million in upfront and potential milestone payments, plus royalties
  • Intellia Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NTLA) in a cross-border collaboration with SparingVision using Intellia’s proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 platform to develop new gene therapies directed to up to three ocular targets, for a 10% equity ownership stake in SparingVision, milestone payments of up to approximately $200 million per product, and royalties, as well as an option to US commercialization rights for two of three targets 
  • Ginkgo Bioworks in various agreements, including:
    • with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) focused on the discovery of RNA-based drug candidates for up to $331 million in upfront, research, and development and commercial milestone payments, plus royalties, across three programs
    • with Merck (NYSE: MRK) to improve production efficiency and increase yields in biologic manufacturing for up to $490 million in upfront research fees, research milestone fees, option license payments and commercial milestone payments
    • with Boehringer Ingelheim to collaborate in mining Ginkgo’s metagenomic sequence database for a specified number of projects up to an aggregate total of $406 million, plus royalties
    • with Merck (NYSE: MRK) for up to $144 million in commercial milestones, plus upfront and research milestones, to engineer enzymes for use as biocatalysts in Merck’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing efforts
    • with Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) to create novel expression hosts for pharmaceutical products addressing diabetes and other serious chronic diseases
    • with Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB) to develop a next-generation recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) production platform
    • with Twist Bioscience (Nasdaq: TWST) a supply agreement under which Twist will supply high volumes of synthetic DNA to support Ginkgo’s fast-growing cell programming platform 
    • with Givaudan to accelerate development and enhance Givaudan's portfolio of taste and scent ingredients
  • Ginkgo Bioworks in the launch of Concentric by Ginkgo, the company’s public health and biosecurity initiative, to provide COVID-19 testing solutions to states, cities and school districts
  • Dicerna Pharmaceuticals in a global collaboration and license agreement with Roche to develop and commercialize a treatment for chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection, for more than $1.67 billion in upfront and milestone payments, plus royalties
  • LG Chem Life Sciences in a $900+ million multi-target, strategic collaboration announced with CUE Biopharma that provides LG Chem with the Asia rights to Cue Biopharma’s lead immuno-oncology CUE-101 program, products in two other programs, and a worldwide option for another antigen-focused biologic

Honors & Involvement

HONORS
  • Ranked by Chambers USA as one of Massachusetts' leading Intellectual Property: Licensing lawyers (2025, 2026)
  • IAM Patent 1000: Massachusetts (2025, 2026)
  • Harvard Law School, Harvard Law Review, Editor
  • Served as a law clerk to Judge Patti B. Saris of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts