Dr Toichi Takenaka, the first winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the inaugural Pharma Intelligence Awards Japan earlier this year, talks to Scrip about his journey from researcher to CEO and today as a mentor for Japanese bioventures. Starting his career in an “empty lab” in the 1960s motivated him to pursue a string of collaborations with universities in Japan and on to the discovery of four successful drugs.

Public Company Edition: Acrivon launched the 20^th biopharma IPO in the US for 2022. Also, Q3 updates reveal job cuts at Tricida, Harpoon, Neoleukin and more; APIM Therapeutics will reverse merge with Nordic Nanovector; plus other follow-on offerings, royalty deals and a sale-leaseback. 

Plus deals involving OliPass/Vanda, Simcere/Almirall, Sinopharm/Merck & Co., Jiuzhou/Sandoz, Zai Lab/Seagen, Sciwind/SynderK, Hansoh/KiOmed.

Deal Snapshot: The Dutch biotech planned to move its preclinical candidate, the EGFR-targeting LAVA-1223, into the clinic later this year. Seagen has shown interest in business development as Merck merger talks have quieted down.