Bird & Bird advises Pfizer on global spin-off
Bird & Bird LLP has advised Pfizer on the global spin-off and merger of its Upjohn business with Mylan N.V. to form the new global pharmaceutical company with the name Viatris Inc.
This global advice related to the transfer of employees in the spin-off of its Upjohn business unit. In more than 100 jurisdictions the Upjohn business had to be separated from the Pfizer business to be combined with Mylan N.V.. Part of the advice was to develop a transnational concept for the transfer of employees and the implementation of the employment-related provisions of the transaction in the individual markets, including data protection law.
Pfizer was advised by the following Bird & Bird lawyers: lead partner Thomas Hey, associates Dr. Artur-Konrad Wypych and Alisa Nentwig, all employment, Düsseldorf. The German team was supported by 58 lawyers in 16 countries of the international employment team, amongst others: associates Mia Boesen and Pia Skovgaard Hansen (Copenhagen), partner Teea Kemppinen (Helsinki), associates Filip Hron and Roman Norek (Prague), Zoltan Tarjan and Karim Laribi (Budapest), counsel Karolina Stawicka and associate Paulina Grotkowska (Warsaw), partner Pieter de Koster (Brussels), partner Philip Hartman (The Hague), associates Bibiana Mozolova and Radovan Repa (Bratislava), Natasha Cheng and partner Seow Hui Goh (Singapore), partner Johannes Eisser and associate Eleonore Mayer (Abu Dhabi), partners Ian Hunter, Anna Shashina and associate Kate Hurn (London). Lead partner and coordinator for all jurisdictions for data protection issues was Lennart Schuessler with associates Baki Alacayir and Oliver Schmidt-Prietz, LL.M., all Düsseldorf.
In addition, the Bird & Bird team worked together with a longstanding network of partner law firms all over the world, which supported the implementation of the measures at a local level.