Ropes & Gray has advised Partners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, on its acquisition – on behalf of its clients – of a majority stake in FairJourney Biologics (“FairJourney”), a leading antibody discovery Contract Research Organization (CRO), from GHO Capital Partners.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Porto, Portugal, FairJourney is a CRO supporting pharmaceutical and biotech companies working at the cutting edge of innovation to develop the next generation of antibody-based therapies. It provides services for the discovery, engineering, production, and characterization of antibodies, and has worked with over 250 clients across the globe to develop more than 4,000 unique screening libraries for identifying antibodies. FairJourney’s partnerships have yielded 14 therapies that are currently in active clinical development to treat unmet patient needs across oncology, immunology, and cardiovascular disease. The transaction will also see a meaningful reinvestment from GHO Capital Partners.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by private equity transactions partners John Newton and Victoria McGrath supported by associates Victoria Srivastava, Padraic Daly, Joshua Nicholson, Charlie Shephard and Rouzana Kasem.  Other members of the team included partner Alex Robb and associate Jacob Bennett (finance); partner Jordan Altman, counsel Ryan Murphey and associates Kevin Tang, Jacob Green and Parker Elliot (strategic transactions); partner Rohan Massey and associate Catherine Keeling (data, privacy & cybersecurity); partner Lincoln Tsang and associate Hannah Kerr-Peterson (life sciences regulatory & compliance); partner Andrew Howard and associate Benjamin Wonnacott (tax); partner David Seymour and associate Abbey Shaw (real estate); associate Louise Ferdjani (litigation & enforcement); trainees Cameron Grabowski, Callum Flanagan, Connor Stevens and Iain Fox and paralegal Alexander Kelly.

Ropes & Gray worked with Cuatrecasas on the transaction in respect of Portuguese law advice.