Adam Torres and Michael Lerner discuss The PIPEs Conference.
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Show Notes:
Listen to The PIPEs Conference coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Michael Lerner, Chairman of Life Sciences Group, Lowenstein Sandler LLP, explore Lowenstein Sandler LLP, and The PIPEs Conference.
Watch Full Interview:
About Michael Lerner
Michael Lerner provides strategic judgment and practical advice regarding diverse matters for pharmaceutical, life sciences, and health care companies. Clients–including public and private pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and other health care companies, as well as their investors and investment banks–value his extensive experience as both in-house counsel and outside legal and business advisor.
This background has contributed to Michael’s stellar record of successful outcomes in product acquisitions and divestitures, technology licensing, sales and marketing practices, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, corporate compliance, employment law, and regulatory matters. Importantly, he understands the interplay of all these factors and how to manage them effectively for the optimum completion of each transaction.
Prior to joining Lowenstein Sandler, Michael was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of EKR Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on acute care hospital products. That position followed six years as Vice President and General Counsel at Reliant Pharmaceuticals Inc., which Michael helped grow into one of the nation’s largest privately held pharmaceutical companies before it was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2007. As part of Reliant’s senior management team, he was lead inside lawyer on product acquisitions and dispositions totaling in excess of $650 million, and helped the company raise more than $660 million in equity and debt.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and today we are at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, and we’re here for the Pipes Conference that DealFlow Events is holding, and my guest is Michael. Michael, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.
All right, Michael. So first off, what do you think about this venue? It’s a great venue. Great place to be. Yeah. I, my, my first time to this casino, but it’s been a lot of fun and I’m like, we just got done eating. We’re getting like, I’m feeling good. Yeah, me too. Got hit a little bit on the tables, but it’s okay.
Yeah. There we go. It’s all good. So what brings you to the conference today? Firms is a sponsor of the conference. We do a lot of work with small micro cap companies in various areas. verticals and we decided to come and sponsor the event. Yeah. Is this year, is the firm been behind the deal flow events for a bit, or is this one of the first conferences you’ve been to?
This is my first one, by the way. I’m just asking. I think over the years we’ve supported many of these events or these types of events, including the deal flow events. Yeah. Yeah. A lot, a lot of fun. I’ve been doing these, these interviews virtual for them for a while. And I’m like, I’m going to get out there.
Don’t worry. I’m coming. I’m coming. So finally to see it all in action. I’m like, it’s good. It’s really good. It’s really worthwhile. And I believe your niche within the firm, is it life sciences? Yeah, I chair the life sciences group at Loewenstein Sandler. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Sure. We have the life science group focuses on various companies engaged in the life sciences industry from pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, med tech companies, diagnostic companies, other healthcare service providers that cater to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. We have offices in New York, New Jersey, California.
Washington, D. C., and we’re fully focused primarily, or at least I focus primarily, in the life sciences. Nice. What? And I’m not asking for any particular company or client or anything like that, of course, but you have a unique vantage point. I mean not only with working through your clients and where you, and your position, But just also being in that field, like what interests you in the life sciences space in general right now?
Well, generally, I’ve been in this space my entire life. Oh, wow. I grew up, you know, my father was in the pharmaceutical industry. So I learned the industry at you know, at the kitchen table. Oh, that’s awesome. And I started in the. Practicing law back in the 80s and had chaired a life sciences group at another firm, went in house to a company, to the first specialty pharmaceutical company where we developed many products and made them into market.
We ultimately exited with in a fairly large M& A transaction back in the mid 2000s. Joined Lowenstein Sandler 18 years ago to head up their pharmaceutical and life sciences practice. I’ve been doing it ever since. Man. So what’s interesting. So then I like my question even better than now, because you, you grew up in this.
The beauty about this business is you can do well by doing good. Yeah. Basically, if you can develop a product that gets approved and can save, either improve somebody’s quality of life, cure a disease, or otherwise make somebody’s life better and make them live longer, make them healthier, you know, what better reward than that is.
And if you. If you’re able to do that, then you could have, there’ll be financial success will follow. In terms of this particular conference, I’ve been out here doing interviews all day. So what, what’s been any programming or anything else that you care to comment on that you found interesting? I think the, the entire process of explaining or actually be about the various Securities related matters, you know, one thing about the life sciences space, especially in the former, in the smaller companies, micro cap and small cap is there, they don’t have revenue, so they’re constantly out looking to raise the capital necessary to move their products forward and hopefully, hopefully get approved and get to market.
So, you know, the, the programming here was targeted towards that. Oh, I, it’s, you know, entrepreneurs and other people who are interested in understanding how the capital markets work and the various phases of capital development. Yeah, I’m a fan of the life sciences niche, I’ll say, and I’ll tell you, I do a lot of interviews.
So when I’m interviewing people and otherwise, The founders, the people that have these big ideas, these big plans and dreams and visions that they have to go forward and and to see them build a year after year, I’ve had some people, they were on my show five years ago that I see them again. And I’m like, what’s been going?
No, it’s amazing. You know, the tenacity, you know, I joke, you have to be crazy to go into this business, go through chances of success or probably, you know, they say one in 10, 000 molecules, absolute actually get approved, but you know, you’re, it’s like a, Don Quixote like quest to try and get a product to market.
And, you know, and you have to believe because, you know, people all along the way are going to doubt you, you know, Hey, I’m trying to target, you know, pancreatic cancer and nobody’s ever been able to do it, but if you’re able to do it, think about the difference in the world you can make. So you can really make a difference in this space.
I mean, that’s what makes it so exciting, man. I love it. Well, I think that’s a great way to end it. You have to believe lasting. I’ll ask you, Michael. If somebody wants to learn more about the firm, follow you, connect, or anything else, any information you can. Sure, they can find me at mlearneratloenstein.
com, I’m on LinkedIn, and, and we’re on our website, www. loenstein. com. Amazing, and for the audience, just so you know, I’ll put the links to all that stuff. Stuff in the show notes. You can just click on the links and go and check out the website. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. Michael, thanks for making the time for us. Thank you. I appreciate it.