Salima Merani

Salima Merani specializes in guiding financing and acquisition deals for companies in the life sciences. About a quarter of those deals involve developments in neuroscience. Merani holds a doctorate in that field, and many clients seek her out because of that background, she said.

A team she heads has served as lead intellectual property counsel for Cala Health Inc. as it secured more than $100 million in financing in recent years, including a major deal in October 2021. The former “tiny startup” has FDA approval for a wristband that stimulates nerves to stop or reduce hand tremors. “It’s a life-changing device,” she said.

She also guides and oversees the company’s patent and trademark portfolios. She helped Cala obtain some important patents in the last two years.

Merani recently helped another client obtain some patents covering a very different sort of neurostimulation. Alpheus Medical Inc. has begun clinical trials on a method to attack deadly glioblastoma brain tumors using ultrasound to activate a drug that targets the cancer cells.

“I’m sort of a neurostimulation geek because of my doctorate,” she said.

Merani represents both businesses and venture capitalists. Alpheus retained her after seeing her work for Action Potential Venture Capital when it invested $16 million in Alpheus in late 2021.

Many of her clients are in other fields. Just last month she represented a small startup called Novonate Inc. in its acquisition by Laborie Medical Technologies Corp. for a confidential amount. Her client developed a medical device called Life Bubble that attaches a catheter safely and securely to NICU babies’ umbilical cords.

“This acquisition is going to bring this technology to more babies,” Merani said. “It makes my 16-hour days worthwhile.”

Another important client has been Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. She and a Knobbe team are lead strategy and litigation counsel for the company, which is developing tools to diagnose and treat cancers using a patient’s genetics. “Personalized medicine continues to be a trend. I really think that’s the way of the future in terms of therapeutics,” she said.

Merani helped the company bring in more than $100 million in funding in 2021 and then last February guided it when it was acquired by LabCorp. for as much as $575 million.

Merani said she has noticed that venture capital funding has become a little more difficult to land in the last several months, especially since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March. “That’s had a chilling effect on financing throughout the life sciences,” she said. “Funders are generally more risk-averse.”

But she is optimistic for her own clients. “I still feel really good about our clients,” she said. “They’re sophisticated with regard to how much value they put on IP and their perspective on IP, and because of that, they’re still getting the venture interest.”

— Don DeBenedictis