Benjamin Li

Benjamin Li, PhD, JD, joined Pivotal Life Sciences in 2021, where he supports investments in venture and growth stage companies across the platform, and advises existing portfolio companies on BD and IP matters. Ben previously spent four years as a life sciences transactions attorney at Cooley, where he strategically advised on and negotiated partnering and licensing deals on behalf of his private and public company clients. Notably, he represented 23andMe in its target discovery and drug development collaboration with GSK, Bicycle Therapeutics in its T-cell modulator discovery collaboration with Roche/ Genentech, Arcus Biosciences in its ten-year portfolio-wide partnership with Gilead, Alpine Immune Sciences in licensing its ALPN-101 asset to AbbVie, Principia Biopharma in its acquisition by Sanofi, and Arsenal Biosciences in its T-cell therapy discovery collaboration with BMS, among other significant transactions. As part of his practice, Ben also counselled his clients on basic patent and know-how licenses (including university and intracompany licenses) and day-to-day operational agreements (including R&D services, clinical trial sites, and manufacturing and supply arrangements). Prior to that, he was a patent advisor at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he designed, prosecuted and managed the patent portfolios for biotech startups in the pharmaceutical, biological and diagnostic sectors. Ben earned his JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall), his PhD in chemical biology from the California Institute of Technology under the mentorship of Prof. Peter Dervan, and his BA in biochemistry from Columbia University. He is a co-author of 10 peer-reviewed scientific publications.