Special counsel Soraya Mir, specialist in health and biotechnology, acted for Cryosite by giving key advice on the agreement with AHA, and assisting with the negotiations.

“This initiative is an Australian first,” Mir said. “Given the importance of the project, it was imperative that Cryosite felt comfortable with the agreement and with how we were moving forward. Ensuring open and clear communication with my client was one of several key ingredients that led to its success.”

The arrangement between the two parties will help to ensure that diseases do not infiltrate the Australian landscape, Mir said. “Clearly one of the things that is on everyone’s mind are diseases that can potentially come through animals … such as avian bird flu.”

Mir, who has plenty of experience working with governments and in the area of biotech and medical research, had to engineer contractual arrangements that meant both sides were comfortable their rights had been secured. Her client, Cryosite, wanted numerous aspects of the AHA contract varied, and Mir was able to negotiate workable solutions by finding alternate strategies for AHA to implement.

Cryosite managing director, Gordon Milliken, said “it was imperative for us that the agreement accurately reflected the services we will provide and also incorporated appropriate procedures for ensuring a good working relationship with AHA”.

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“Mir not only ensured these requirements were met, but successfully managed to ensure that a myriad of additional matters, including intellectual property, which we had not fully considered, were reflected in the agreement in line with the parties’ expectations of the way the arrangement would work,” Milliken said.

For Mir, it was the opportunity to help her client navigate into new territory that made the deal engaging. “This particular one was more exciting because it was a real initiative for our client,” she said.