Kevin R. Sweeney

Kevin Sweeney has more than 35 years of experience leading complex financial, business, and strategic transactions for major business clients, primarily in the life sciences industry. He serves as a legal advisor to his client’s C-Level executives and boards of directors, providing business-oriented advice backed-up by deep industry contacts and knowledge as an integral part of helping his clients achieve their business, financial and strategic goals.     

Kevin represents emerging, growth and established for-profit companies and nonprofit entities in the life science industry, primarily in human health and animal health areas, including medical devices, drugs and therapeutics and diagnostics.  He provides strategic and proactive “life cycle” advise to life science clients related to optimizing corporate structures, throughout their early stage, institutional venture capital financing and growth equity and debt financing stages, to their “exit” transactions, including merger and acquisition, joint venture and licensing transactions and preparing companies for IPOs.

He maintains his deep industry contacts by serving on a number of boards and organizations in the life science community, including his role as Chair of the Board of BioKanas, the national BIO affiliate in the state of Kansas (for which he has also served as chair of its Public Policy committee among other roles).

Chambers USA, the world's leading guide to the legal profession, has included Kevin in its rankings for more than 15 years, most recently in 2020. In interviews with clients during research for the rankings, the following remarks were made regarding Kevin's work at the firm:

• "Sources say he is 'bright, intelligent and leaves no stone unturned when dealing with large, complex transactions.'"
• "Sources praise 'the ease and speed in which he identifies core issues.'"
• "An impressive negotiator who is said to 'always strive to get the best outcome for his clients.'"
• "Clients have been effusive in their praise of Kevin Sweeney, lauding him as 'superior on strategy' and a formidable force around the negotiating table."
• "His work is described as 'very focused and detail-oriented,' yet retaining 'uncanny creativity.'"

Life Science Industry 

• Sale of a medical device company to a national medical products distributor for over $500 million
• With Dr. Sydney Brenner, led the development of the Molecular Sciences Industry in Berkeley, California, one of the first multidisciplinary basic scientific institutes focused on predictive biology
• Led acquisition of a British diagnostics company by a US biothreat detection company
• Representing a consortium of leading animal health research companies in a collaborative nonprofit scientific development joint venture
• Developed and implemented a financial and operating structure for a medical device development company and two spin-out technology commercialization companies
• Managed the phased acquisition of a pandemic vaccine manufacturing facility as a joint venture project of two Japanese multinational corporations
• Led acquisition of a French CRO by a public US cancer vaccine therapy company
• Member of a team that led the representation of Marion Laboratories, Inc. in sales to Dow Chemical and then (as Marion Merrell Dow) by Hoechst AG, including leading the combination with Hoechst’s French subsidiary Roussel Uclaf S.A.
• Leading angel and venture capital financing rounds, providing hundreds of millions of dollars of early stage funding for numerous emerging and growing life science companies
• Merger of two human health medical device companies and preparation for sale to a strategic industry leader for PAC-IPO
• Represent a foreign joint venture of two leading technology multinationals in purchasing a pandemic vaccine manufacturing company