VC funding slowed recently, but public company financings kept up a brisk pace with follow-on public offerings for Allakos and Alpine, private placements for Ventyx and Syros, and Albireo’s royalty deal. In restructuring updates, Biogen raised $592m in a real estate deal and Acerus is assessing options.

The cost of rare diseases to patients and society at large is 10 times higher than for many of the biggest mass market diseases combined. With 95% of rare diseases lacking a treatment or cure, there is an economic imperative for policymakers to keep encouraging pharmaceutical companies to develop more orphan drug treatments. In Vivo looks at the US and EU regulatory impetus to keep rare diseases open for innovation. 

Merging with the shell of troubled cancer biotech Sesen, Carisma believes its chimeric antigen-receptor-macrophage (CAR-M) platform can bring the immunotherapy application to solid tumors.

Andrew ElBardissi, partner on Deerfield Management’s medical technologies team, spoke to In Vivo sister publication Medtech Insight about the fund’s investment strategy, the changing face of medtech, and how investment in the life sciences sector will continue to change post-COVID.