Plus deals involving BiomX/Adapative Phage, One/NEX-I, Shionogi/FunPep, Taiho/Haihe, Kinnate/Pierre Fabre, StemCell Technologies/SQZ and more, as well as tech transfer agreements.

But Novo’s blockbuster lags established drugs in diabetic kidney disease patients, and will probably be regarded as an adjunct.

Pivotal data on the oral BTK inhibitor could enable Novartis to maintain its hold on the urticaria market.

The numbers may be down, but Europeans will in future be able to gain access to a number of highly innovative medicines, including several products for hard-to-treat cancers, a gene therapy for severe and moderately severe hemophilia B, and two vaccines against disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus.