Life Sciences, Pharma & Healthcare

De Brauw has acted as lead counsel to Exor on a – for the Netherlands - rare tender offer to repurchase ordinary shares. The EUR 750 million tender offer is part of a larger EUR 1 billion share buy-back program. The tender offer will be executed via a reverse "Dutch auction", allowing qualifying shareholders to select the price at which they wish to sell their shares back to Exor within a pre-determined price range, extending in 1% increments, from a 3% discount to a 10% premium over a VWAP reference price. The tender offer is supported by Exor majority shareholder Giovanni Agnelli B.V., which has committed to participate for an amount of up to EUR 250 million at or above the reference price. As trusted lead legal adviser to Exor, De Brauw was involved in all strategic and legal aspects of the tender offer, the majority shareholder commitment, and the drafting of documentation including the offer memorandum.

NewAmsterdam Pharma N.V., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing oral, non-statin medicines for patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease, listed on NASDAQ, priced and closed its USD 181 million public offering of ordinary shares by certain of the Company’s existing shareholders at a public offering price of $11.50 per common share, which included a partial exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ordinary shares, granted to the underwriters by certain of the selling shareholders. The Company did not receive any proceeds from the secondary offering. NewAmsterdam Pharma N.V. obtained a listing on NASDAQ in November 2022 through a de-SPAC transaction. With the secondary offering the shareholder base of the company has expanded which will hopefully lead to more liquidity.

De Brauw advised Silverfleet Capital on the sale of the STAXS Group, a leading value-added distributor of consumable products for cleanrooms in Life Sciences and other industries. The acquirer is a portfolio company of Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, a family-owned company with a diversified portfolio of investments. The parties entered into a sale and purchase agreement on 6 May 2022 after which the transaction was completed on 19 May 2022.

On 13 June 2023, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) published its updated Guidelines regarding Sustainability Claims, which replace the ACM's earlier guidelines that were published in 2021. The updated guidelines provide more clarity on what makes sustainability claims compliant with unfair commercial practice rules, and what could make these claims misleading to consumers.

We are thrilled to announce that Anne Marie Verschuur will join De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek as partner in our IP practice. Our firm welcomes a renowned expert in the IP, Life Sciences, and Tech sectors, ensuring that our clients continue to receive the best IP advice as our practice continues to develop and prepare for upcoming matters in the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

2020 marked the start of Europe's Digital Decade, an ambitious policy programme that sets the groundwork for having a complete digital transformation of Europe by 2030. When first announced by the Commission, the programme threatened to be yet another drawn-out project, destined to be mired in political debate and unlikely to have any real-world impact for the foreseeable future. But a mere two years into the project, a different story unfolds: the European Union has kicked one of the most significant reforms in Europe into high gear. With no fewer than 13 fast-tracked legislative proposals, it looks like the Digital Decade will be completed in half of the expected time.