Former Celgene VP to head life sciences transactions at Lowenstein Sandler

Celgene Corp.’s former Vice President-Corporate Transactions Mary Storella joined Lowenstein Sandler LLP as vice chair of the firm’s life sciences group and head of life sciences transactions.

Storella will use her more than 15 years of life sciences transaction experience, most recently at Celgene, in her practice, which will focus on mergers and acquisitions, early and late stage collaborations, licenses, options, co-development and co-commercialization collaborations, clinical collaborations, and diagnostic collaborations in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and other industries.

At Celgene, she led and supported deals that included the company’s $67 billion sale to Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene’s $13.4 billion divestiture of Otezla to Amgen, the company’s $9 billion acquisition of Juno Therapeutics, and its $300 million acquisition of Delinia Inc.

Prior to her time at Celgene, Storella headed a transaction team on all aspects of licensing, partnerships, and acquisition opportunities at Merck & Co. Inc. as executive director of business development. Transactions she worked on at Merck include the $14.2 billion divestiture of Merck’s consumer care business to Bayer, its $10 billion acquisition of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, and the licensing of Phase III oncology product and collaboration with Endocyte.

“Mary has supported the biggest names in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries with innovative deal structures and creative solutions to their most urgent needs,” said chair of Lowenstein’s life sciences group Michael Lerner in a statement. “This extensive in-house experience gives her a 360-degree perspective on not only licensing, partnering, and acquisitions, but also on the tax, corporate governance, and business development impacts of these and other complex transactions, and it adds to our already deep, industry-focused transactional capabilities.”

“Now more than ever, life sciences and biotech companies are at the forefront of developing innovative solutions in a rapidly changing landscape,” said Storella in a statement. “I look forward to working with Michael and the entire Lowenstein team as we guide the industry through the current challenges and beyond.”