Amy L. Toro

Toro, who has been with Covington for 21 years, is a partner focused on life sciences transactions. She advises pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on biologics, drugs and devices, including in the digital health sector. Included in her work are major collaborations, licensing arrangements, clinical trial agreements, supply and distribution agreements, product development funding deals and joint ventures, and a variety of commercial arrangements.

Her clients include Gilead Sciences Inc., Myovant Sciences GmbH and GlaxoSmithKline plc.

“All of us in this area are quite busy,” Toro said of her work during the pandemic.

Even as Pfizer Inc. was rushing out its COVID-19 vaccine last year, another unit of the pharmaceutical giant was negotiating with Myovant, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical, to strike a $4.2 billion collaboration over Myovant’s drug relugolix. Toro led a Covington team advising Myovant on the transaction, announced in December, to develop and commercialize relugolix, a once-daily oral hormone receptor antagonist that reduces testicular testosterone, a hormone known to stimulate the growth of prostate cancer, and ovarian estradiol, a hormone known to stimulate the growth of uterine fibroids and endometriosis.

The deal proceeded alongside Pfizer’s joint development with Germany-based BioNTech SE of one of the leading COVID-19 vaccines. “There was no conflict—Pfizer is a broad-based business with a lot of divisions,” Toro said. “Myovant had developed the product and the focus was on getting it into the market.”

In April 2020, as the virus’ rapid spread made a search for solutions critically clear, Toro was part of a Covington team advising GlaxoSmithKline on an extremely expedited 13-day timeline in a $250 million deal with Vir Biotechnology Inc. to research and develop coronavirus treatments. The idea was to use Vir’s proprietary monoclonal antibody platform technology to accelerate existing and identify new antiviral antibodies for use as therapeutic or preventative options in the pandemic and in future outbreaks.

“More and more the industry is moving toward quicker and quicker transactions,” Toro said, “but there wasn’t a lot of sleep during this one.”

The GlaxoSmithKline collaboration with Vir got a reboot in February 2021 when the companies signed a binding agreement to expand the deal to include the research and development of new therapies for influenza and other respiratory diseases. GSK increased its equity investment by $120 million and made an upfront payment of $225 million.

“The collaboration was broad and sweeping with some technology overlap and synergies between flu and COVID vaccines,” Toro said. “There is money to be made in the COVID world, but there is also a strong public service component involved.”

-- John Roemer