Latham Wins Financial Times Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers Award for Healthcare

The Financial Times has named Latham & Watkins the 2021 honoree for Practice of Law – Healthcare in this year’s Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers report. The report highlighted Latham’s role advising Beijing-headquartered Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (Sinovac) on the creation of a complex financing structure to help the biopharmaceutical company attract early-stage investment for its COVID-19 vaccine, CoronaVac.

Latham was recognized among honorees who “crossed professional sector boundaries, created new standards, delivered outstanding outcomes for clients or created new practice areas, with originality and impact,” according to the Financial Times.

The coverage noted that Latham devised a unique financing structure for Sinovac involving “loans converted into equity interest in Sinovac Life Sciences, a research and development subsidiary.” This approach resulted in “a total of $515m being raised” at a critical time during Sinovac’s development of its COVID-19 vaccine. Chicago partner Christopher Drewry and Hong Kong partner Benjamin Su led the Latham deal team, with support from Hong Kong counsel Zheng Wang and Chicago associate Joyce Li.