In this week's podcast version of Five Must-Know Things: ripples from SVB’s failure; Karuna’s schizophrenia win; big pharma remains open to partnering; ChatGPT comes to medical congresses; and China’s COVID vaccine lessons.

Private Company Edition: Flare Therapeutics, targeting transcription factors to discover precision medicines, had big pharma backing for its second venture capital financing. Also, Mediar closed a $10m series A round, Switch launched with $52m and EpiBiologics raised a $50m series A round.

China continues to dominate the latest list of global billionaires and top execs from domestic pharma firms Hengrui and Hansoh ranked among the wealthiest overall in the country, along with the founder of vaccine maker Zhifei Bio. A number of top Chinese biopharma business executives also featured in the global top 100 billionaires list.

US-based Orange Grove Bio inks first international partnerships with Korean universities, laying the foundation for its planned role as a bridge between the biotech industries in the two countries and to identify, develop and commercialize novel assets emerging from academic research.

Cidara’s US commercial partner Melinta will launch the novel echinocandin this summer, announcing pricing shortly before rollout. Limited indication follows recommendation of FDA advisory panel.

Karuna’s KarXT could be the first new mechanism for treating schizophrenia approved in more than 50 years and founder PureTech is tapping into that promise by linking up with Royalty Pharma and boosting its cashpile.

The US firm’s Zynyz has won accelerated approval for the treatment of first-line Merkel cell carcinoma, bouncing back from a prior regulatory setback, but its third-to-market status leaves it with the crumbs under the table in this orphan indication.

Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events and approvals announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.

The route to market for Sarepta’s gene therapy candidate SRP-9001 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy has just got more complex after a U-turn by the US FDA. Its accelerated approval will now be scrutinized by outside experts – but the company remains confident in its data.

Already approved in Crohn’s disease, Skyrizi now has positive Phase III results in ulcerative colitis with more data expected this year in UC as the field grows more crowded with anti-IL-23 options.

The company aims to deliver DNA via lipid nanoparticles as well as delivering LNPs systemically to tissues beyond the liver and spleen, which the CEO called a “frontier” in an interview.

89bio’s pegozafermin met co-primary endpoints of fibrosis reduction and NASH resolution in Phase IIb; the company said its methodology yielded lower placebo responses than in Akero’s Phase IIb study.