Global law firm Baker McKenzie today announced two additions to its Transactional Practice and Healthcare & Life Sciences team: leading US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory lawyer Khelin Aiken, who rejoins the Firm as a partner in Washington, DC, and Rabiya Kader, a life sciences transactional lawyer with significant IP experience, as Counsel in New York. Together, the arrivals expand the Firm’s transactional, regulatory, and IP bench for pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and consumer healthcare clients.
“Khelin and Rabiya bring complementary transactional, regulatory and IP experience that will be invaluable to our life sciences and healthcare clients,” said Alan Zoccolillo, Americas Chair of Baker McKenzie’s Transactional Practice Group. “Their arrivals strengthen our ability to help clients assess risk early, navigate complexity with confidence, and get strategic deals done.”
Khelin joins from Johnson & Johnson (J&J), where as a Senior Counsel, US Commercial Programs she served as commercial legal lead for J&J’s multi-billion-dollar CAR-T, pulmonary hypertension, and cardiovascular franchises across the Innovative Medicine division. Prior to J&J, she was Assistant General Counsel – Regulatory, Global Life Sciences and Pharma at Philip Morris International (PMI), guiding the growth of its subsidiary, Vectura Fertin Pharma, into a B2C organization across consumer health, cannabinoid, NRT and inhalation therapy product categories. Khelin was a partner at Baker McKenzie from 2019 to 2023, and before that, Regulatory Counsel at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in both the Office of Regulatory Policy and the Office of New Drugs with the Therapeutic Biologics and Biosimilars Staff.
Khelin’s practice bridges transactional dealmaking and FDA regulatory strategy, advising life sciences clients on major deals alongside the regulatory risk that shapes them. Her practice spans the product life cycle, from therapeutic product development plans, clinical trials, and marketing applications for prescription drugs, including biologics and generics, to the acquisitions, development and collaboration agreements, divestitures, and spinoffs that follow. She draws on her deep understanding of the US Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, the US Public Health Service Act, and their implementing regulations, along with her prior FDA experience, to help clients develop and achieve their strategic business objectives. She has served as regulatory counsel on multibillion dollar transactions, including J&J's Consumer Health spin-off and AbbVie's acquisition of Allergan, guiding labeling, licensing, and registration strategy at deal scale. She also regularly advises life sciences clients on the development and implementation of corporate compliance and ethics programs.
Rabiya, a Registered US Patent Attorney, joins the New York office with more than two decades of in-house and law firm experience across pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare, medical devices, cosmetics and supplements. She spent nearly 14 years at Sanofi, including four-plus years as Global Head of IP for Opella, formerly Sanofi Consumer Healthcare. At Sanofi, she also served as Senior Patent Counsel, overseeing patent due diligence for major transactions including deals with Google, Mannkind and Pozen.
Over the course of her career, Rabiya has led global IP strategy, acquisition, defense and enforcement across patents, trademarks, copyrights and domain names, managed portfolios of 700+ patent matters, led IP for Rx-to-OTC switches, and supported ANDA and 505(b)(2) strategies. She partners closely with R&D, regulatory, manufacturing, marketing and business development teams to identify, protect and monetize innovation, and brings deep experience in IP due diligence, licensing, and freedom-to-operate and validity analyses. A mechanical engineer by training, she began her career at J&J before moving into IP law.
“We are thrilled to welcome Khelin back to Baker McKenzie and to add Rabiya’s exceptional in-house IP leadership to our team as we continue to expand our life sciences and healthcare offerings, a strategic area of focus for the Firm,” said Oren Livne, Co-Head of Baker McKenzie’s North America Healthcare & Life Sciences Group. “Khelin’s FDA and in-house experience at major global pharmaceutical companies, paired with Rabiya’s global IP strategy and consumer healthcare depth, gives our life sciences clients an integrated transactional, regulatory and IP perspective they will benefit from immediately.”
The additions of Khelin and Rabiya build on a series of strategic hires that Baker McKenzie has made across its global platform over the past 18 months, including: Per Chilstrom and Michael Pilo (Capital Markets, New York); Daniel Garcia (Transactional, Houston); Dan Ouyang (Capital Markets, Hong Kong); Michal Berkner (M&A, London); and Indradeep Bhattacharya (IP, London), reflecting the Firm’s continued commitment to building a best-in-class life sciences team.
Baker McKenzie’s global healthcare and life sciences transactional team brings together over 800 lawyers across 40+ countries in M&A, licensing, collaborations, regulatory, IP, antitrust, tax and compliance to help clients execute complex cross-border transactions. The team advises on acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, strategic partnerships and licensing and collaboration arrangements. Recent matters include advising Bayer on its agreement to acquire Perfuse Therapeutics, Inc. in a transaction valued at up to USD 2.45 billion; advising Sino Biopharmaceutical on a global license agreement with Sanofi worth up to USD 1.53 billion; and representing Servier on its USD 2.5 billion agreement to acquire Day One Biopharmaceuticals.
Khelin earned her JD from The George Washington University Law School and her BS, magna cum laude, in Finance from Hampton University. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Virginia.
Rabiya earned her JD from Rutgers Law School and her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University–New Brunswick. She is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey.