Josh Thornton is a founding member of the Healthcare practice at Centerview Partners. He is an experienced advisor to senior management teams and boards of public and private life sciences companies. Over the course of his career he has engaged with life sciences clients across biopharma, medical devices, diagnostics and tools on a broad range of complex strategic and financial issues and transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, partnerships, defense, and debt and equity financings.
Mr. Thornton’s recent notable transactions include Prometheus Bioscience’s $10.8 billion sale to Merck, MyoKardia’s $13.1 billion sale to Bristol Myers Squibb, AveXis’ $8.7 billion sale to Novartis, Momenta’s $6.5 billion sale to Johnson & Johnson, Global Blood Therapeutics’ $5.8 billion sale to Pfizer, Principia’s $3.7 billion sale to Sanofi, Affinivax’s up to $3.3 billion sale to GSK, Audentes Therapeutics’ $3.0 billion sale to Astellas Pharma, Portola Pharmaceuticals’ $1.6 billion sale to Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Forma Therapeutics’ $1.1 billion sale to Novo Nordisk, Icosavax’s up to $1.1 billion sale to AstraZeneca, Amolyt Pharmaceuticals’ $1.05 billion sale to AstraZeneca, and ViaCyte’s $320 million sale to Vertex.
Other notable transactions include Pfizer’s $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth, InterMune’s $8.9 billion sale to Roche, Receptos’ $7.8 billion sale to Celgene, OSI Pharmaceuticals’ $4.0 billion sale to Astellas Pharma, Thoratec’s $3.7 billion sale to St. Jude Medical, Avanir’s $3.5 billion sale to Otsuka, Biogen Idec’s $3.25+ billion acquisition of full rights and control of Tysabri from Elan, Pacific Biosciences’ $1.3 billion sale to Illumina, MAP Pharmaceuticals’ $958 million sale to Allergan, Bioverativ’s acquisition of True North Therapeutics for up to $825 million, Haemonetics’ $551 million acquisition of assets from Pall Corporation, XenoPort’s $457 million sale to Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Ultragenyx’s $151 million acquisition of Dimension Therapeutics, Dendreon Corporation’s sale of a royalty interest to CPPIB, and Cytokinetics’s sale of a royalty interest to Royalty Pharma.
Mr. Thornton joined Centerview in 2009 from Merrill Lynch where he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. He holds an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a B.A. in Economics/East Asian Studies from Wesleyan University.