Private Company Edition: Venture capital mega-rounds of $100m or more held steady in April after a slow January and February then a surge in March, but VC fundraising is down overall this year. In recent raises, Enveda series B expanded to $119m, Vedanta brought in $106.5m and Convergent raised $90m.

Pharma will partner with SyntheX on targeted protein degradation, with Autolus on cell therapy safety. Novo Nordisk gets rights to Ventus’s lead compound in NASH and chronic kidney disease.

Zydus has established proof of concept for ZYIL1, a NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor to treat cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, via Phase II trials in Australia. Will the oral drug have an upper hand over injectables like Novartis’ Ilaris?

Totals for aggregate deals and in the M&A, alliance and divestment categories were similar among the 10 busiest deal makers from 2020 to 2021, but COVID-19 may have driven a more hectic deal-making pace overall in 2020.