Long touted as one of the drugs to watch in the Swiss giant's pipeline, iscalimab's chances of replacing tacrolimus as the standard of care preventing organ rejection in transplant patients have been dealt a hefty blow after a Phase II trial failure.

Bausch seeks to add eyecare assets in Allegro deal. AstraZeneca hopes preclinical PCSK9 inhibitor from Dogma can compete with dyslipidemia leaders. Exelixis options ADC candidates from Catalent and NBE.

Deborah Dunsire’s appointment to lead Lundbeck tops this week’s list of new hires; Astellas, Orchard Therapeutics, Voyager Therapeutics, iTeos Therapeutics, Cevec Pharmaceuticals, Sangamo Therapeutics, Cedilla Therapeutics, Tilos Therepautics and Neos Therapeutics have also appointed new executives and directors.

Suzhou-based immuno-oncology specialist CStone raised a $260m Series B round and Brii launched with $260m in Series A cash to develop drugs for the China market. Also, multiple start-ups launched recently with more than $50m in Series A rounds, including Ansun, Beam, Casma, Celsius and Neurana.