The new capital will allow the VC arm to create and finance "a new and larger portfolio of innovative companies that align with the future strategies" of Merck's businesses.

Denmark's mid-sized biopharma, Lundbeck, has taken another potential Parkinson's disease therapeutic into early clinical studies, the third this year, and this time it's a monoclonal antibody, not a small molecule.

With its 2015 third fund Forbion Capital III yielding an internal rate of about 65% and already returning 60% of the money it drew down back to investors, it is probably no surprise that Forbion exceeded its €250M target for its predominantly Europe-focused Forbion IV fund within two months of marketing.

ApolloBio signs on to take Inovio's HPV immunotherapy into China and Senju and Fosun sign China partnerships – all part of a wave of Chinese companies looking to bring innovative new medicines to the Greater China markets. Meanwhile, GSK signs on with Indian CRO Syngene.