Casarine Chong Transforms Lives with Strategic Initiatives

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In late 2023, biopharmaceutical innovation leader Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) demonstrated its strength as an M&A competitor with the announcement of several high-profile acquisitions. BMS opened the fourth quarter of 2023 with its $5.8 billion deal for targeted oncology biotech Mirati Therapeutics in October 2023 and finished the year with an announcement of its $4.1 billion bid for radiopharmaceuticals biotech RayzeBio on December 26. That post-Christmas RayzeBio announcement came just two trading days after BMS announced its $14 billion acquisition of neuroscience biotech Karuna Therapeutics on December 22.

For Casarine Chong, senior vice president and deputy general counsel of transactions for BMS, the frenetic fourth quarter of 2023 punctuated the fundamental values of BMS. “Deals speak the mission and values of a company, and BMS’s mission and values were clear with these transactions—continuing to advance a global R&D-driven organization with a mission to ‘transform patients’ lives’ through innovation and a ‘patients-first’ mentality,” Chong says. “BMS is focused on discovering and developing therapies in neurology, oncology, cardiovascular, and immunology—therapeutic areas of tremendous unmet patient need that require tremendous investment.”

And the mission and values of BMS are personal to the SVP. Chong’s passion for her work stems not only from the ability to contribute to BMS’s strategic mission by helping to strategically shape and tactically drive and negotiate acquisitions, partnerships, and other significant transactions, but also from the ability of the industry to improve patients’ lives, including those closest to her.

In early 2016, Chong’s mother-in-law passed away after a year-long battle with stage 4 cancer. Chong learned the news while traveling for the final strategic planning meeting for the approval and launch of a groundbreaking chemotherapy-free therapeutic for the treatment of hematological cancers.

The celebration of the approval and launch of that cancer therapy was bittersweet for Chong as she mourned her personal loss. But months later, at a summer social event, a new acquaintance burst into tears and embraced Chong when she learned that Chong led both the R&D transactions and global clinical R&D legal organizations for AbbVie, the biopharma that had launched that hematological cancer treatment earlier in the year. Her husband was one of the first patients to receive the innovative therapy and was in full remission.

“That moment, with two relative strangers weeping and embracing in the middle of a summer cocktail party, crystallized how my work holds the potential to make a tremendous impact on the well-being of people, on their lives and the lives of their loved ones,” Chong says. “It’s hugely motivating through even the most grueling and sleepless days and nights.”

That motivation became clear to Chong in her formative professional years. Following her undergraduate degree, Chong joined Deloitte as a healthcare strategy consultant, where her interest in the life sciences came to the fore. “There was a real-world impact beyond the clients’ P&L, market share, and stock price, and I was able to interact with the healthcare and hospital systems, physicians, and patients impacted by my work,” she recalls.

“The pace of change in the life sciences accelerates every year.”

Casarine Chong

With the sponsorship of Deloitte, Chong completed her JD and MBA at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Kellogg School of Management, respectively. Upon graduation, she joined the corporate practice of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (now known as Dentons), and then Mayer Brown to expand her opportunities to explore a more diverse transactional practice.

Chong first ventured in-house in 2008 to join the deal team at Abbott Laboratories, during which time she worked on the company’s various M&A, venture, and other transactions, including the acquisition of Solvay Pharmaceuticals. “I didn’t know it at the time, but that transaction established the global footprint for the eventual establishment of AbbVie, which is today a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company,” Chong reflects. “It was my first cross-border, multijurisdictional, multibillion dollar transaction, which was a phenomenal experience.”

Chong’s deal team then structured and executed the spin-off of AbbVie from Abbott, and she joined the newly formed public company biopharmaceutical, where she was responsible for leading the R&D Transactions, Alliance Management, and Global Clinical R&D teams. Chong eventually left AbbVie in late 2020 to join BMS, where she remains today.

Chong’s colleagues praise her as an exemplary leader at BMS. “Since joining BMS in 2020, Cassie has brought a high level of professionalism and rigor to the M&A process that has resulted in seamless execution during an active acquisition period for the company,” note Daniel Wolf and Jonathan Davis, partners at Kirkland & Ellis. “She is a hands-on manager, with a passion for mentoring and the science of helping patients that stands out.”

“Cassie is an outstanding leader who guides her team—both in-house and outside counsel—to achieve optimal results for her clients,” says Olivia Tyrrell, an M&A partner at Baker McKenzie who has worked with Chong on a significant number of deals over the past sixteen years. “Her ability to close deals efficiently while managing various stakeholder needs make her a role model for other in-house leaders. Baker McKenzie is honored to partner with Cassie and the BMS team on executing these key transactions.”

The intensity and pace of the fourth quarter of the year is Chong’s self-described “happy place.” She relishes such opportunities to drive the strategic direction of the company in an industry that uses mergers and acquisitions as well as other strategic transactions to drive growth.

In addition to Mirati, Karuna, and RayzeBio, Chong led global asset acquisitions involving cardiovascular and oncology assets from LianBio and Orum Therapeutics in late October and November 2023, respectively, and a global collaboration with SystImmune, a clinical-stage oncology biotech, in early December 2023. Each transaction will, according to Chong, deliver on BMS’s mission of advancing innovation and transforming patients’ lives.

Instilling passion for BMS’s mission is a priority for Chong.

That includes her role as executive sponsor of the BMS law department’s pro bono committee. “Pro bono is an integral part of the BMS culture,” she says. Such activities reflect BMS commitment to transforming patients’ lives on a holistic level. The committee sponsors opportunities to assist organizations working on immigration issues, criminal record expungement, and voting rights, to name a few.

Mentoring and broadening the skills of her organization also drive Chong. “My philosophy is continuous succession development,” she says. In service of that goal, exploring growth opportunities for the organization is “an integral part of my day job.”

With a handwritten matrix tracking assignments and opportunities, Chong strives to assign deals and projects that will continuously build upon her team’s transactional and legal skill set as well as cross-functional literacy across finance, tax, accounting, regulatory and commercial matters. As business partners and advisors, Chong’s lawyers keep abreast of innovations in the life sciences and developments that impact the legal, regulatory, and business environment.

“The pace of change in the life sciences accelerates every year,” she observes. As someone who thrives in an environment that presents a new challenge each day, she is grateful for the opportunity to make the most of her talents and passion.

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