• June 16-19, 2025
  • Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

Speakers

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Barbara Wood

Barbara Wood

Barbara Wood has been practicing law since her graduation from Columbia Law School in 1987. She most recently served as the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company. She previously served as General Counsel of two other Nasdaq-listed biotechnology companies, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (2001-2010) and Ophthotech Corporation (now iveric bio, an Astellas company) (2013-2018). From 2011 to 2013, through Wood Legal, she advised individuals and small companies on a variety of corporate, commercial and M&A matters, with a particular focus on the biotechnology and technology industries. At SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc., a micro-cap oncology-focused biotechnology company based in NYC, Barbara was a member of the senior leadership team and was responsible for all legal, intellectual property, compliance, human resources and operational matters with a heavy involvement in financing and investor relations matters. She served as an advisor to the CEO and Board on strategic and governance matters and, in addition to oversight of all day-to-day legal matters, including several capital raises, she managed several complex legacy litigation matters following a reverse merger in 2018. Prior to joining SELLAS, Barbara was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Ophthotech Corporation where, as Ophthotech’s first general counsel, she led the legal, intellectual property and compliance functions and was a member of the senior leadership team. During her tenure, Ophthotech was a mid-cap Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company with drugs in development for eye diseases, including macular degeneration. Following the failure of all three Phase 3 registrational clinical trials for its lead asset, Barbara stayed for a transition period of one year before joining SELLAS. Barbara joined OSI Pharmaceuticals in 2001 as its first general counsel and built its legal department, after representing OSI as outside counsel in a number of transactions since 1995. Over the next 10 years, Barbara served as a member of the senior management team and built for OSI’s operations in the US and the UK (Oxford) not only the legal department but also the intellectual property,ncorporate compliance and government affairs functions. During these years OSI transitioned from an R&D company to a fully integrated profitable commercial company with the approval and launch of its first drug in 2004. At the time of OSI’s acquisition by Japan-based pharmaceutical company, Astellas Pharma, for $4 billion in mid 2010, OSI had grown from 100 employees to over 750 employees and Barbara’s functions were comprised of approximately 25 employees. Successfully navigating the many legal challenges during this time of dramatic change and growth required strong collaborative relationships with the other key executives at OSI. Barbara finished her tenure at OSI at the end of 2010 after playing a significant role in the integration and transition process. Prior to joining OSI in 2001, Barbara practiced corporate law as an associate and partner at the NY firm of Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Sheinfeld, which, in 2002, became part of the firm now known as Hogan Lovells. She primarily focused on mergers and acquisitions, biotechnology, licensing, securities and venture capital matters, and worked on numerous transactions in the 1990s for some of the earliest biotech companies while representing an early biotech venture capitalist and angel investor. Barbara earned her law degree from Columbia Law School where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She completed her undergraduate work at Connecticut College where she double-majored in classics and economics. She served as a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA) and the board of Dances Patrelle, a not-for-profit chamber-sized ballet company, for many years and is currently the Vice Chair of the Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO) General Counsels Committee. She resides in New York City with her family.
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