Profile
Dr. John Wehrli is a shareholder in the San Diego office of Greenberg Traurig, where he leverages over 40 years of professional experience in law, business, and science exclusively in the life sciences industry, and has long been recognized as one of the top life science attorneys globally.
Dr. Wehrli has worked on a wide range of bet-the-company deals worth a total of over $133 billion. Two of those deals, for which he served as lead counsel, won the California Life Science Association’s Pantheon award for outstanding partnering deal of the year and another named by the Financial Times as one of the four most innovative corporate deals of the year (across all deal types and industries) in its annual most innovative lawyers report. He was named 2022 Lawyer of the Year in Biotechnology and Life Sciences by Best Lawyers.
Practice Focus
Dr. Wehrli counsels life sciences companies, including Bio-AI, neurotechnology, space pharma/biotech, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, and medical device companies and their investors, in structuring and negotiating complex bet-the-company strategic intellectual property transactions, including strategic alliances, joint ventures, global partnering deals, collaborations, spinouts, and strategic mergers and acquisitions. He also consults in complex life science litigation. Over 90 percent of his strategic deals have been cross-border and he has extensive experience in Asia, Europe, and South America.
Legal, Government, and Industry Experience
Before joining Greenberg Trauig, Dr. Wehrli spent nearly 20 years as an equity partner for the life sciences practices of several major BigLaw firms and as a patent litigation, patent prosecution, and technology transactions associate before that. Dr. Wehrli also leverages his in-house and government legal experience, as well as industry experience as an entrepreneur and research scientist. This includes C-Suite experience as chief legal officer and corporate secretary at two public biotechnology/AI companies and as a patent and licensing associate at a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory. He is also a co-founder of several biotechnology/AI companies, and his scientific industry experience includes a decade as a research chemist and computational systems chemist and software engineer for Syntex/Roche. He is also a neuroscience and artificial intelligence advisor to Lionheart Ventures.
Scientific Experience and Training
Dr. Wehrli has a deep background in applying the tools of computational science and engineering, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL); and mathematical modeling (predictive AI) to systems biology, chemistry, and neuroscience, having coded in over two dozen programming languages during his career. He is a GTC certified expert in both machine learning and AI and has additional professional certifications in biotechnology and pharmaceutical AI from MIT; systems biology from the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; biomathematics, bioinformatics and computational biology from UC Santa Cruz; mathematical and computational biostatistics (including fMRI statistics) from Johns Hopkins, and complex and nonlinear computational mathematics from the Santa Fe Institute. He has hands-on technical experience in physical organic, analytical, and protein chemistry; drug delivery, robotics, neurophysiology (including functional neuroimaging); and in computational neuroscience, computational psychiatry, computational biology, computational chemistry, and computational pharmacokinetics. Dr. Wehrli is a co-inventor on numerous AI patents in drug design, and in screening and production of small molecule compound libraries. He is also co-inventor of the IDEA® Predictive ADMET multilayered modular network differential prediction software, which was a pioneering product in predictive Bio-AI. He has therapeutic target experience in neurology and psychiatric disease (CNS), immunology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease, and oncology.
Dr. Wehrli’s Ph.D. research focused on computational and behavioral neuroscience where he sought to identify and mathematically decompose novel phylogenetically proximate neurobiological, neuropsychological, and neurophysiological endophenotypes (deep endophenotyping) of behavioral phenotypes and polygenic genotypes of dopaminergic neural network systems, including polymorphic dopaminergic allelic genotypes. His research interests focus on using these validated endophenotypes to develop mathematical and neurocomputational mimetic and predictive AI models (using genetic algorithms, machine learning, and deep learning using multilayered artificial neural networks including overparameterized autoencoders, Bayesian nonparametric Dirichlet mixture models, and hidden Markov models) of behavioral phenotypes and deep phenotype dynamical systems comprising neuropathological mesolimbic and mesocortical dopaminergic neural networks in conjunction with qEEG/ERP-eLORETA spatiotemporal optimized computational neuroimaging. He also conducted research related to neuropathological nigrostriatal and mesocortical dopaminergic neural networks in left-onset and right-onset Parkinson’s Disease as a core member of, and neuroscience specialist for, the PaRC Project Research Team under an FRSA and a $6.4 million research grant from the Templeton Foundation under Dr. Joel Goodin and Dr. Patrick McNamara from Northcentral University and the evolutionary neurobehavior lab of the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine.
Professional Involvement
Dr. Wehrli is a member of numerous legal, engineering, and scientific organizations including the Institute of Neurotechnology & Law and the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law, and is currently Emeritus Member of the Dean’s Leadership Council for the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego.
Pro Bono Practice
Having started his law firm career as a litigator, for over 30 years Dr. Wehrli has had a multi-award-winning, litigation-focused pro bono practice in criminal law (including false confessions by children and adolescents), child-centered intimate partner domestic violence, and children’s rights and protection (including guardianship and child custody cases), and currently focuses on child psychological abuse, including estrangement and alienation. Dr. Wehrli has argued over three dozen evidentiary bench trials and has been the attorney of record or supervisor of another over 150 domestic violence and child custody cases. He is a member of several child-focused professional organizations including the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and the Parental Alienation Study Group, and is on the Advisory Council for National Family Justice. Dr. Wehrli was previously elected to the board of directors for the Pro Bono Project of Silicon Valley and the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and served as a chair of the pro bono committee for Latham & Watkins.
During his early litigation career, Dr. Wehrli focused on the evaluation, preparation, and direct and cross-examination of scientific experts under both Daubert trilogy and Frye standards, including preparation and evaluation of expert reports and tutorials, primarily in chemistry, molecular biology, pharmacology, computational mathematics, and statistics. Over the past decade, Dr. Wehrli has consulted on the evaluation of scientific evidence, experts, and expert reports in neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry throughout the United States and Canada. Dr. Wehrli is currently Associate Editor and contributing author for the Litigator’s Handbook of Forensic Medicine, Psychiatry, and Psychology. Dr. Wehrli also publishes and conducts collaborative interdisciplinary research and policy work in the fields of space law, AI law, law and psychology, mental health law, and law and neuroscience.
Dr. Wehrli immigrated to the United States from South America as a child and speaks Spanish and Japanese, in addition to English, and is a veteran of the United States Navy.
Concentrations
- Life sciences, AI, and space complex bet-the-company strategic alliances, joint ventures, corporate partnering deals, collaborations, and merger & acquisition transactions
תחומי התמחות
ניסיון מקצועי
- Two winners of the Pantheon Award for outstanding partnering deal of the year.°
- A series of deals for seminal cancer drug Zelboraf®, winner of the Pantheon Award for outstanding therapeutic product of the year.°
- Financial Times 4th most innovative strategic transaction of 2012 in its Innovative Lawyers Report.°
- 42 partnering deals/strategic alliances each valued over $100 million that totaled $50 billion.°
- 84 multimillion-dollar strategic alliances, corporate partnering and collaboration agreements.°
- Over 650 life science intellectual property transactions.°
- Numerous strategic Joint Ventures, Spin-Outs and Co-Promotion Agreements.°
- Numerous headline strategic alliances in HCV, cancer, autoimmune disease, and other indications including:
- Aspect/Novo-Nordisk $2.7 billion deal for bioprinted tissue therapeutics in diabetes and obesity.°
- Arcellx/Kite-Gilead $4.2 billion deal for CART-ddBCMA for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.°
- Regor/Eli Lilly $1.6 billion metabolic disorder pre-clinical collaboration for a Chinese client.°
- Alios/Vertex $1.5 billion+ HCV nucleoside/nucleotide pro-drug global collaboration.°
- Intermune/Roche $530 million HCV Protease inhibitor (Danoprevir) global collaboration.°
- Tacere/Pfizer $145 million HCV expressed RNAi global collaboration.°
- Plexxikon/Roche $706 million Zelboraf (vemurafenib) BRAF cancer global collaboration.°
- CG Oncology/Kissei $140 million global cancer collaboration.°
- Chiasma/Roche $600 million oral somatostatin analog Octreolin for acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors global collaboration.°
- Novacea/Schhering-Plough $500+ million VDR (Asentar) prostate cancer global collaboration.°
- Geron/Merck telomerase vaccine cancer global collaboration.°
- Plexxikon/Wyeth $464 million (PPAR) Type II diabetes global collaboration.°
- Bayhill/Genentech-Roche $350+ million Type I diabetes global collaboration.°
- Kythera/Bayer $373 million submental fat reduction global collaboration.°
- Plexxikon/Roche $335 million RAF kinase polycystic kidney disease global collaboration.°
- Renovis/Pfizer $187 million vanilloid receptor (VR1) pain global collaboration.°
- Plexxikon/Servier $112 million rennin inhibitor cardiovascular global collaboration.°
- Coherus Biosciences in a series of interlocking transactions selected by Financial Times as one of the 4 most innovative strategic transactions of 2012.°
- Over 90% of major deals are cross-border or involve global rights.
- Over 75 life science M&A transactions valued at over $61 billion including asset purchases, tender offers, stock mergers, forced divestitures, and leveraged buyouts, including:
- WuXi in the sale of its cell and gene therapy manufacturing unit to Altaris.°
- WuXi ApTec in the sale of its U.S. medical device operations to NAMSA.°
- Eli Lilly in its acquisition of ImClone for $6.5 billion.°
- Plexxikon in its acquisition by Daichi-Sankyo for $935 million.°
- Eli Lilly in its acquisition of Johnson & Johnson’s animal health business.°
- Eli Lilly in its acquisition of a portfolio of Pfizer’s European animal health products.°
- Eli Lilly in its acquisition of Alnara Pharmaceuticals.°
- Santarus in its acquisition by Salix Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion.°
- A Pharma-Pharma acquisition for $7 billion.°
- A pharmaceutical subsidiary acquisition for $1 billion.°
- An Animal Health acquisition for $1.6 billion.°
- Watson Pharmaceuticals in its acquisition of Arrow Pharmaceuticals for $1.75 billion.°
- Cougar Biotechnology in its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson for $1 billion.°
- A Pharma-Pharma Division acquisition for $8 billion.°
- A medical device leveraged buy-out for $4 billion.°
- A medical device acquisition for $2.8 billion.°
- Ulthera in its acquisition by Merz for $600 million.°
- Alios BioPharma in its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson for $1.75 billion.°
- IP Due Diligence counsel to over 300 life science corporate transactions.°
- IP Due Diligence counsel to over 170 life science public offerings that have raised over $22 billion in aggregate.°
°The above representations were handled by Dr. Wehrli prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
- GTC Certified Expert, Machine Learning
- GTC Certified Expert, AI
- AI in Pharma & Biotech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Systems Biology, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Biomathematics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Mathematical and Computational Biostatistics (with Distinction), Johns Hopkins University
- Complex and Nonlinear Computational Mathematics, Santa Fe Institute
הישגים ותפקידי מפתח
- Recognized by the Daily Journal among its list of the top 25 biotech lawyers (including the top 5 licensing lawyers) in California, 2011
- Named as a top life sciences attorney in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business
- Recognized by the Financial Times among its list of "Most Innovative Lawyers"
- Consistently selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America, including 2022 “Lawyer of the Year” in Biotechnology and Life Sciences
- Selected for inclusion in The Legal 500 US, Life Sciences Tier 1
- Named by LMG Life Sciences as a "Life Sciences Star" in Europe and U.S.
- Recognized in Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine's IAM Licensing 250 – The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Practitioners guide
- Consistently recognized in Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine's IAM Patent 1000 — World's Leading Patent Practitioners guide
- Recognized in Latin Lawyer 250, 2013
- Named in the 2014 edition of Northern California Super Lawyers
- Recipient of the CALSUG Pioneer Award in Scientific Computing, 1992
- Who’s Who in Science & Engineering, 1996-Present
- Who’s Who in Life Sciences, 2000-Present
- Who’s Who in America, 1997-Present
- Who’s Who in the World, 1998-Present
- Recipient of the Angel Award from California Lawyer magazine as one of the top 20 pro-bono lawyers in the state, 2007
- Recipient of the Advocate Award from the Pro-Bono Project of Silicon Valley, 2007
- Recipient of Distinguished Service Award from the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, 2013, 2024
- Recipient of the Outstanding Service Award from the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, 2024
- Emeritus Member, Dean's Leadership Council, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego
- Associate Editor, Litigators Handbook of Forensic Medicine, Psychiatry, & Psychology
- Member, Institute of Neurotechnology & Law
- Member, International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law
- Senior Member, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Member, Organization for Computational Neuroscience
- Member, International Society of Psychiatric Genetics
- Member, International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
הכשרה מקצועית וכישורי שפה
- Ph.D., Computational & Behavioral Neuroscience, Northcentral University
- J.D., University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
- M.B.A., Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
- M.O.T. Graduate Studies Program, Chemical Engineering & Bioengineering (Computational Biology Machine Learning & Deep Learning), College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
- California
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- English, Fluent
- Spanish, Native
- Japanese, Elementary