Neuroscience and oncology fuel high hopes for therapeutic R&D progress among 90-plus surveyed biopharma industry leaders.

Public Company Edition: Aileron, Talaris and Frequency said they will reduce expenses and seek options for maximizing shareholder returns under tough stock market conditions. However, CureVac and Supernus are among firms recently able to access new cash – $250m and $150m, respectively.

CureVac, formerly a cheerleader of the unmodified mRNA approach, is embracing the modified version for its vaccine portfolio, a move that has gone down well with the investment community.

Improvements in generating, purifying, and delivering RNA material, as well as addressing challenges with degradation by enzymes, have made the RNA class more attractive to drug developers.