Sekine_Mizuna

Mizuna Sekine

Sekine_Mizuna

Mizuna Sekine

Senior Associate

Palo Alto + 1 650 600 5070

Mizuna Sekine advises clients on a broad range of transactional and financial matters, with a specific focus on technology transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital financings. Prior to joining WilmerHale, Ms. Sekine was a corporate associate in the Bay Area office of another major global law firm, where she advised life science companies and startups on intellectual property-based commercial transactions, as well as equity and debt financings. 

Ms. Sekine earned a Master of Chemistry degree at Oxford University (Trinity College) for her work in Dr. Colin Bain’s laboratory on chemistry of surfaces and interfaces. She is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional in the United States and in Europe. 

Previously, Ms. Sekine has worked as a corporate and intellectual property associate (Bengoshi) at one of the leading law firms in Japan, honing her skills in counseling technology companies on startup financings and navigating jurisdictional regulatory issues. 

Experience

  • Select Representative Matters

    Ms. Sekine has represented high-profile clients in a wide range of matters over the course of her career, including the following:

    • Coherus BioSciences in its:
      • US$558.4 million divestment of the UDENYCA (pegfilgrastim-cbqv) franchise to Intas Pharmaceuticals
      • US$40 million divestment of YUSIMRY (adalimumab-aqvh) to Hong Kong King-Friend Industrial
      • US$76.2 million combined term loan and product royalty financing agreement with Barings
    • Chugai Pharmaceutical in its collaboration and license agreement with Rani Therapeutics to develop and commercialize an oral product consisting of Rani’s oral delivery technology and Chugai’s rare disease antibody
    • A leading biotechnology company in its collaboration and license arrangement with a biotechnology company to develop and commercialize medicine for the treatment of Dravet syndrome
    • A global biotechnology company developing vaccines in its collaboration and license arrangement with a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate
    • A medical device company on its joint venture with a leading global healthcare investment firm and a medical device platform to manufacture and commercialize its medical devices in Greater China
    • A global healthcare company specializing in allergy therapeutic in its collaboration with a biopharmaceutical company to develop and commercialize its medicine for the treatment of house dust mite-induced allergic rhinitis in Greater China
    • CARGO Therapeutics in its initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and its subsequent acquisition by Concentra Biosciences
    • Hazel Health in its acquisition of Little Otter
    • Seres Therapeutics in its sale of its VOWST business to Nestlé Health Science
    • Pionyr Immunotherapeutics in its acquisition by Ikena Oncology
    • Merus in its acquisition by Genmab A/S
    • CeriBell in its upsized initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market
    • PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation in its follow-on offering of its common stock
    • Revolution Medicines in its US$2 billion growth financing with Royalty Pharma
    • Verona Pharma in its US$650 million strategic financing with Oaktree and OMERS
    • Ascendis Pharma A/S in its US$150 million capped synthetic royalty funding agreement with Royalty Pharma
    • Arcus Biosciences in its US$250 million strategic financing with Hercules Capital
    • scPharmaceuticals in its US$125 million strategic financing with Perceptive Advisors

Insights & News

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Credentials

  • Education

    • LLM, Stanford Law School

    • Diploma, The Legal Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan

    • JD, Keio University Law School

    • MChem (with honours), Chemistry, University of Oxford

  • Admissions

    • California

    • New York

    • England and Wales

    • Japan (inactive)

    • US Patent and Trademark Office

  • Languages

    • Japanese

Credentials

Notice

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