Deal snapshot: Akari, which has stayed afloat through small financings in recent years, and Peak Bio, after going public via the SPAC route in 2022, will merge as equals and then prioritize their pipeline.

Private Company Edition: FogPharma raised $145m for its clinical-stage drug and earlier programs after bringing on former Johnson & Johnson R&D head Mathai Mammen as CEO last year. Also, BlossomHill closed a $100m series B round and Kenai emerged with $82m in series A cash.

David Reese, chief technology officer and former EVP of R&D, and newly appointed EVP of R&D Jay Bradner spoke with Scrip about how Amgen is pairing artificial intelligence with genomics plus data milestones in 2024.

Private Company Edition: June’s eight $100m-plus venture capital rounds already outpace the seven each raised in March, April and May, including €255m ($274.2m) for ITM and $200m for Upstream, but while there were five $25m or less VC financings during the past week, mid-sized deals were lacking.