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Marcia A. Hatch
Marcia is the founding partner of the firm’s Ann Arbor office and practices in our Ann Arbor and Silicon Valley offices.
After spending 15 years practicing in Silicon Valley, Marcia led the firm’s effort in establishing a presence in the middle of the country as the founding partner of the firm’s Ann Arbor office. Marcia continues to have an active corporate and securities practice on the coast as well as in supporting our clients in the Midwest.
Marcia serves as a key member of the firm’s Management Committee while leading the Ann Arbor office and participating as a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. She combines a dynamic emerging company practice with a top-tier venture capital investment representation practice, giving her insights, experience and connections relevant to entrepreneurs, companies and investors. Whether it is entrepreneurs needing support for strategic decisions and coaching prior to incorporation, early stage companies looking to raise capital and scale their business or mature companies preparing for public offerings and sale transactions, Marcia’s work with companies spans the entire corporate life cycle. She also routinely represents venture capital firms in their investment activities, related business matters and counseling.
Marcia believes in investing time and energy with entrepreneurs and investors from the incorporation stage onward. She truly enjoys working with companies at the very beginning of their life cycle, thinking through strategic decisions with the founders and investors to keep the company on the path to success. This model has proven out many times. For example, over only two years, Marcia incorporated Flexus Biosciences, handled all three rounds of financing, worked closely with the team and board, and led the sale transaction to Bristol Myers Squibb for $1.2 billion in 2015. Similarly, Marcia incorporated ARMO BioSciences in 2012, helped the company raise $295 million over five financing rounds, including the IPO, and represented the company in its 2018 sale for $1.6 billion to Eli Lilly. In another example, Marcia incorporated Arcus Biosciences, handled every financing, including its IPO and secondary offering, and continues to represent the company after its IPO.
Case Study: True North Therapeutics
Marcia Hatch, a partner at Gunderson Dettmer, represents a variety of life sciences companies throughout their lifecycles, and has led many of them to successful mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings, including the acquisition of Flexus Biosciences to Bristol Meyers Squibb for $1.2B, the largest purchase price of a preclinical trial life sciences company at the time.
True North Therapeutics was spun out of Gunderson Dettmer client iPierian, Inc. Nancy Stagliano, CEO of iPierian, became CEO of True North.
Gunderson Dettmer corporate, tax and intellectual property lawyers, led by Marcia, structured True North’s spinout from parent company, iPierian, and worked to extract the IP that would become its lead pharmaceutical product candidate, TNT009, a drug for the treatment of rare auto-immune diseases. While True North’s scientists worked on product development, Marcia, Nancy and their teams negotiated a series of venture
financings to fund the company’s R&D efforts.
As TNT009 advanced through clinical trials and the company began the parallel development of more drug andidates, Nancy and her team needed a broader funding strategy. True North and Gunderson developed a multi-pronged plan that included preparing for an IPO, conducting a mezzanine financing, and developing key strategic relationships.
As True North readied for its IPO in May 2017, Bioverativ (NASDAQ: BIVV), a global biotechnology company, presented Nancy and her team with an acquisition offer. Gunderson’s M&A specialists negotiated a definitive agreement to sell True North for up to $825 million in just three weeks.
“Gunderson’s team has always been a true partner for True North—an extension of our management,” said Nancy Stagliano, CEO. “We needed every bit of their experience with complex transactions to make this happen in a way that benefitted everyone. Their strategic guidance, knowledge of our investors and their needs, and ability to structure financings and exit transactions in creative, win-win ways, has really guided us toward success from the very beginning.”