Kate Hillier

Hillier guides life sciences companies to put together complex agreements with larger companies for collaboration and funding. She has worked with many innovative companies from maturing startups to international giants.

Her clients generally are small to midsize biotech and pharmaceutical companies who have promising products or inventions in the works and need support to develop them further.

“It’s not about the money,” Hillier said. Rather, her deals result in true collaborations between two companies whose ethos and research and development programs fit well.

“The crux of these deals is really around structuring to make sure these technologies get to market,” she said.

One example is timely. In 2002, Vir Biotechnology Inc. developed a coronavirus antibody to SARS that proved unneeded. When the pandemic hit, it reevaluated that research. GlaxoSmithKline plc had a well-developed vaccine program for respiratory diseases and was interested in targeting the SARS-CoV2 virus.

Hillier advised Vir in creating a $250 million deal with GSK. Early this year, the companies expanded their deal to encompass Vir’s existing influenza antibody program with plans to develop up to three other antibody programs for other respiratory diseases. That new deal is worth as much as $845 million or more.

Also in February, Hillier finalized a deal for Merus N.V. on a research collaboration and licensing agreement with a specialized oncology unit within Ely Lilly & Co. Merus is developing types of antibodies that attach to tumors and alert the immune system to attack them. The company is to receive $40 million cash and a $20 million equity investment from Lilly to develop up to three products. If all goes well, the company will be eligible for as much as $1.6 billion more.

Hillier practiced as an anesthesiologist in her native Australia and in London before earning a law degree at the University of Cambridge. “My interest was really around bringing law to medicine rather than bringing medicine to law.”

— Don DeBenedictis