The lucrative pharmaceutical sector continues to provide a corporate boon to Global 100 firms, with Covington & Burling and Latham & Watkins winning key roles on Salix Pharmaceutical’s $2.6bn acquisition of specialty pharmaceutical company Santarus, announced yesterday (7 November).
With the firm’s longstanding reputation as a leading adviser on both corporate and regulatory matters to life sciences clients a key factor behind its 44% increase in revenues over the last five years to $731m, the Covington team advising Salix is being led by corporate partners Edward Britton and Catherine Dargan out of Washington.Meanwhile, the acquisition finance team is led by finance and capital markets partners Mike Lefever and Kerry Burke. Completing the Covington partner line-up are life sciences partner Amy Toro; co-chair of the firm’s securities practice David Martin; employee benefits partner Mike Francese; food and drug regulatory co-chair Peter Safir and regulatory specialist Scott Cunningham.
