Latham & Watkins Advises LEO Pharma in Acquisition of Worldwide Rights to MC1R Agonist Dersimelagon

LEO Pharma, a global leader in medical dermatology delivering innovative solutions for skin disease, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire worldwide rights to dersimelagon from Tanabe Pharma. Dersimelagon is an oral, once‑daily small MC1R agonist being developed for EPP and XLP, which are rare and severe genetic diseases that cause severe sunlight‑induced skin damage and can significantly limit patients’ ability to spend time outdoors.

Latham & Watkins LLP represents LEO Pharma in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by Washington, D.C. partners David Brown and Marc Granger, with associates Patrick Loeffler and Jane Lee. Advice was provided on licensing matters by New York partner Aaron Gardner, London counsel Oliver Mobasser, and New York counsel Eliot Choy, with associate Luke Nauth; on intellectual property matters by Bay Area partner Roger Chin, with associate Cecilia Bain; on FDA matters by Washington, D.C. partner Elizabeth Richards, with associate Caroline Kessler; on executive compensation and benefits matters by Washington, D.C. partner Matthew Conway, with associate Rebecca Fishbein; on tax matters by Washington, D.C. partner Andrea Ramezan‑Jackson, with associate Eni Kassim; on HSR matters by Washington, D.C. partners Amanda Reeves and Patrick English, with associates Nathaniel Amann and Suhansi Perera; on foreign direct investment matters by Hamburg partner Jana Dammann de Chapto, with associate Nicolas Riemann; on regulatory matters by Washington, D.C. partner Jim Barker; on export controls and sanctions matters by Washington, D.C. partner Andrew Galdes, with associate Ankita Satpathy; on data privacy and cybersecurity matters by Bay Area partner Heather Deixler, with associate Zac Alpert; and on environmental matters by Los Angeles partner Aaron Potash.