James R. McGarrah
Senior Counsel
Senior Counsel
Areas of Focus
Overview
Jim McGarrah works on behalf of clients and trains colleagues as part of the firm’s commitment to internal education. Jim’s client projects primarily involve agreements for pre-clinical research programs at companies and non-profit organizations in the life sciences. He advises clients on licenses and research-based transactions intended to enable discovery and development of early-stage novel therapeutic assets and applications for unique technologies. From material transfers, collaborations, and sponsored research to evaluations, options and exclusive development and commercialization licenses, Jim negotiates terms that enable clients to protect their interests in the rapidly advancing life sciences environment.
Career & Education
- Counsel, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited)
- Provided legal support for the company’s drug discovery activities and major corporate alliances
- Negotiated numerous multi-year, sponsored research collaborations with leading academic institutions involving multi-million-dollar research budgets
- Served as Millennium’s primary counselor on evolving issues in the areas of medical privacy and informed consent requirements for research
- Legal representative on business development initiatives to license discovery tools and early stage drug candidates, and to establish and conclude product-specific development programs
- Counsel, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) (now The J. Craig Venter Institute), one of the first non-profit research centers to incorporate novel technologies in large-scale gene discovery research
- Established key parts of the legal framework for its activities with industry and academia
- Negotiated the terms of early stage research collaborations and agreements covering transfer of materials and confidential information, database access and publication of research results
- Member of the Institute’s Institutional Review Board; helped assure its compliance with applicable regulations and conditions of federal research grants
- Counsel, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited)
- Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, B.S.F.S.
- College of William & Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law, J.D.
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
Representative Matters
- Exclusive license agreements with numerous prestigious private, public, ivy-league, and research universities, as well as notable medical treatment centers and not-for-profit research institutions.
- Collaboration and sponsorship agreements for staged research projects among multiple universities and a single disease-focused start-up company with federal grant awards under multiple programs
- Establish core principles and agreement terms for treatment of research results and collaborative research projects for newly established Boston-based non-profit research institute
- Development of template documents (material transfer, sponsored research and consulting) for multiple start-up companies
- Exclusive licenses and research agreements with academic centers in Italy, Germany, and The Netherlands for U.S.-based biopharmaceutical companies
- Sponsored research, subcontracts, and collaborative research and development agreements (CRADAs) with NIH and U.S. defense agencies, universities and companies for clients with novel technologies and funding sources, including government grants, and private grant programs
