Good news in the biopharma industry and the US economy gave public drug developers the boost they needed to raise cash, including Karuna’s $750m offering. Private company financings slowed during the second week of August, but Prellis and Vector BioPharma raised venture capital.

During Q2, biopharma merger and acquisition value reached $25.4bn and drew in $27.3bn in potential deal value from alliances. Device company M&A values reached $2.7bn, while in vitro diagnostic firms and research tools players completed M&A activity that totaled $534.3m.

Kyorin Pharma is to end operations at its US subsidiary ActivX 18 years since its acquisition. Although the California firm’s kinase-probing technology has contributed to Kyorin’s R&D, the Japanese firm acknowledged limits to future applicability in the development of candidate compounds.

Eisai has decided to shut down its US oncology research operation H3 by September in the course of restructuring its global R&D organization. The majority of H3 employees will be laid off as Eisai Inc. and new organization DHBL absorb its functions and assets. Meanwhile another Japanese pharma firm, Astellas, builds up its US R&D footprint.