Xu

Xianfeng Morgan Xu, Ph.D.

Partner
Registered Patent Attorney
Washington, DC

I help protect and commercialize life science innovations through strategic patenting, counseling, and transactions. I also guide entrepreneurs through their startup legal journey.

Morgan Xu is a life sciences licensing and transactions attorney with decades-long scientific and patent expertise. Combining both law-firm and in-house perspectives, he is a trusted and pragmatic advisor blending strategic vision, business and legal mindsets, and tactical excellence.

Morgan assists clients with various transactions, ranging from multibillion-dollar collaboration and co-development deals, services agreements and quality agreements for key CDMO contracting, and sponsored research & academic licensing agreements.  He led many US-Asia cross-border matters.  He takes a practical and efficient approach for agreement drafting and negotiations.
 
Morgan also advises biotech and life sciences clients on all aspects of patent strategies, and portfolio and life cycle management, from US patent prosecution, global patent procurement, post-grant proceedings to IP diligence and landscape counseling. He further assists clients with patent litigations, freedom-to-operate assessments, invalidity opinions and regulatory counseling. 

Morgan represents diverse clients from Fortune 50, mid-size public or private companies, universities, VC funds, late or early-stage start-up, to solo entrepreneurs.  Morgan also assists life sciences entrepreneurs and emerging companies in navigating myriads of startup legal issues. Morgan served as the Vice President of Legal and IP, and Company Secretary for Inscripta, Inc., a biotech startup with ~$500M financing with missions to democratize digital genome editing and develop sustainable biomanufacturing solutions.

Morgan’s experience covers vast technical areas spanning all forms of biologics (antibodies, peptides, nucleic acids, ADCs, etc.), gene therapy, cell therapy, microbiome, diagnostics, medical devices, instrumentation, microfluidics, synthetic biology, gene editing, genome engineering, agricultural breeding, bioengineering and food tech. 

Prior to his legal career, Morgan conducted postdoctoral research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory dissecting how plant stem cells talk to each other via sharing macromolecules.

Related Industries

Related Practices

Education

  • The George Washington University, J.D., with honors
  • The Ohio State University, Ph.D., Plant Biology (Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics)
  • Peking University, Beijing, China, B.S., Biotechnology
     

Bar and Court Admissions

BAR ADMISSIONS
  • District of Columbia

Languages

  • Chinese

Experience Overview

LIFE SCIENCES TRANSACTIONS
China/Asia-Related Cross-Border Transactions
  • Advise a public China-headquartered global CRDMO in therapeutic binder asset licensing to a European company.
  • Advise a U.S. NewCo based on China-origin circular RNA technology in corporate structuring and IP & technology licensing.
  • Advise a leading Chinese Agricultural research institute in out-licensing its breakthrough plant breeding technology.
  • Advise a Vietnamese Agricultural biotech startup in licensing and service agreements with U.S. customers.
  • Advised a public Korean biotech company in various collaboration and co-development agreements for its proprietary ADC technologies.
  • Advised an emerging precision diagnostics company with US-China dual presence in various service contracting and licensing disputes with head licensor and multinational subliciensee.
  • Advised a stealth startup company in licensing a COVID therapeutic product from a Chinese research institute.
  • Advised a public US biotech company in term sheet negotiation and IP diligence for licensing a muscular dystrophy therapeutic from a public China biotech company.
  • Advised a multinational biopharma in negotiating a multi-asset, multi-billion collaboration and licensing agreement with a €300 million equity investment for developing oncology medicines in China in collaboration with a Hong Kong-listed China-based public biopharma (Innovent, 信达生物).*
  • Advised a Hong Kong/Shanghai dual-listed China-based public biotech company (Shanghai Junshi,上海君实生物) in cross-border R&D collaboration and licensing agreements (with a Singaporean biotech or a leading US university) for various technologies in immune-oncology and immunology.*
  • Advised a Hong Kong-listed China-based public biotech company (CStone, 基石药业) in the cross-border licensing of various biologic binders.*
  • Advised a leading, publicly traded China-based biopharma (Huadong, 华东医药) in the cross-border licensing of a technology from a US ivy league university.*
  • Advised a public US biotech company in an exclusive license with a Chinese research institute for a patent related to treatment for neutrophil-mediated diseases.*
Platform-Based Collaboration and Co-Development
  • Advised a multinational biopharma (Sanofi) in negotiating a multi-target, multi-billion collaboration agreement for developing protein degrader-based therapies for immune-inflammatory diseases and others, with a $150 million upfront payment.*
  • Advised a multinational biopharma (Astra Zeneca) in negotiating a multi-target, multi-billion collaboration and license agreement for developing RNAi therapies for cardiovascular, renal, metabolic and respiratory diseases, with a $60 million upfront payment.*
  • Advised a multinational biopharma (AbbVie) in negotiating a multi-target collaboration agreement for developing allogeneic CAR-T therapies, with a $40 million upfront cash payment and equity investment.*
  • Advised a multinational biopharma (Astra Zeneca) in negotiating a multi-stage R&D collaboration and license agreement related to oncolytic virus, with a $10 million upfront payment.*
Other Licensing and Contracting
  • Advise a commercial-stage ophthalmology cell therapy company in all contracts matters including clinical trial agreements, master development and services agreements and quality assurance agreements with leading CDMOs for a US phase 3 clinical trial.
  • Advise a private US & China dual-presence biotech company in contract negotiations related to clinical and commercial licenses for a cell line.
  • Advise a leading biomanufacturing company in collaboration and joint development agreements with multiple multinational specialty ingredients companies, applying its genome engineering and precision fermentation platform to various industry sectors (skin care, fragrance, Agchemical).
  • Advised a mid-size US public medtech company in setting up inter-company licensing arrangements for a new subsidiary to expand its ultrasound-on-a-chip technology into new applications.
  • Advised a private biotech company with cross-Atlantic presence in setting up inter-company licensing and management agreements for a new US subsidiary dedicated to develop an anti-aging technology.
  • Advised an emerging clean tech company in licensing an electrochemical lithium extraction technology from an US university.
  • Advised a Series B US biotech company in terminating a collaboration with a public US biotech and rights reversion for clinical and pre-clinical assets.
  • Advised a public biotech company in agreement disputes and amendments to a collaboration based on its Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) platform technology.*
  • Advised a leading public regenerative medicine company in contract negotiations related to clinical quality assurance assays.*
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
  • Advise a leading synthetic biology company in patent strategies, portfolio management, collaboration contracting, and IP licensing.
  • Advise a commercial-stage ophthalmology cell therapy company in global patent and portfolio strategies.
  • Advise a healthcare multinational corporate VC in IP diligence for regenerative medicine and renal care-related investments.
  • Advise a public, clinical-stage TCR therapy company in patent prosecution and patent risk evaluation
  • Advise a leading molecular farming and food tech company in patent strategies and prosecution.
  • Advise an emerging gene therapy vector manufacturing platform company in IP strategies and patent prosecution.
  • Advise an emerging nucleic acid-based assay development company in IP strategies.
  • Advise a stealth skin therapy biotech company in IP strategies and transaction matters.
  • Advise a stealth cellular food biotech company in IP strategies and startup legal matters.
  • Advise a mid-size, public biotech company in IP risk and FTO assessment for an antisense oligo (ASO) clinical asset.
  • Advised a leading digital genome engineering company in patent strategies, IP risk assessment and mitigation, collaboration contracting, and IP licensing matters.*
  • Developed and managed a microbiome patent portfolio of over 300 cases for a public clinical-stage biotech company from its founding to IPO.*
  • Advised an emerging biotech company developing precision diagnostics technologies in patent prosecution, IP strategies, and licensing matters.*
  • Advised a China-based global biopharma company developing immune-oncology products in IP strategies and transactional matters.*
  • Advised a public clinical-stage biotech company developing immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases in developing global IP protection and China partnership strategies.*
  • Advised an emerging start-up company in IP protection of its groundbreaking technologies to address gene and cell therapy manufacturing challenges.*
  • Advised a multinational agribusiness in patent matters related to all aspects of crop design, breeding and biotechnology.*
  • Advised a multinational biopharma in IP diligence for acquiring a gene therapy company for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).*
* - Denotes representations handled by Morgan prior to joining Foley Hoag.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
  • Senior Director/Vice President, Legal and IP, Inscripta
  • Corporate Secretary, Inscripta

Publications

Other Publications

  • Riemenschneider K. and Xu X.M., Drafting Tips, The Licensing Journal, Vol. 40, No. 5 (June 9, 2020)
  • Xu X.M., Wang J., Xuan Z., Goldshmidt A., Borrill P.G.M., Hariharan N., Kim J.Y., Jackson D., “Chaperonins Facilitate KNOTTED1 Cell-to-Cell Trafficking and Stem Cell Function,” Science, 2011, 333(6046): 1141-4.
  • Xu X.M. and Jackson D., “Lights at the End of the Tunnel: New Views of Plasmodesmal Structure and Function,” Current Opinion of Plant Biology, 2010, 13(6): 684-92.
  • Xu X.M. and Meier I., The Nuclear Pore Comes to the Fore,” Trends in Plant Science, 2008, 13(1): 20-7.
  • Xu X.M., Zhao Q., Rodrigo-Peiris T., Brkljacic J., He C.S., Müller S., and Meier, I., “RanGAP1 is a continuous marker of the Arabidopsis cell division plane,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 2008, 105(47): 18637-42.
  • Xu X.M., Rose A., Muthuswamy S., Jeong S.Y., Venkatakrishnan S., Zhao Q., and Meier I., “NUCLEAR-PORE ANCHOR, the Arabidopsis Homolog of Tpr/Mlp1/Mlp2/Megator, Is Involved in mRNA Export, SUMO Homeostasis and Affects Diverse Aspects of Plant Development,” Plant Cell, 2007, 19(5): 1537-48.
  • Xu X.M., Meulia T., and Meier I., “Anchorage of Plant RanGAP to the Nuclear Envelope Involves a Novel Family of Plant Nuclear Pore-Associated Transmembrane Proteins,” Current Biology, 2007, 17: 1157–63.
     

Honors & Involvement Overview

HONORS
  • ABA/BNA Award for Excellence in Intellectual Property Law (2017)
  • Life Sciences Research Foundation Fellow (2009)
  • Chapman Fellow (2008)

Contact Info

Subscribe

Stay Up to Date

Get the latest Foley Hoag news, publications, and event invitations.

Enter your email

We use cookies to enhance user experience, improve functionality and performance, and for analysis of website traffic. By clicking “accept”, you agree to the use of cookies. For more information about our cookie policy and the information we collect, please review our Privacy Statement.