Repare Therapeutics and Bristol Myers Squibb announced a multi-target discovery collaboration potentially worth over $3bn. Alexion Pharmaceuticals entered into a definitive agreement to acquire fellow public biotech Portola Pharmaceuticals $1.44bn. An increase in both follow-on public offerings and PIPE financings boosted biopharma financing significantly from last month.

AstraZeneca and Silence Therapeutics entered a March alliance worth up to $4.08bn for the discovery and development of siRNA drugs for cardiovascular, renal, metabolic and respiratory diseases, while the top April deal was a $3.9bn tie up between Fate Therapeutics and Janssen for iPSC-derived cell-based cancer immunotherapies.

Last year, a total of 67 biopharma and medtech companies completed initial public offerings (IPOs), raising for $8.55bn between them.