With UK biotech venture capital investment at its highest level to date, biotech company building is showing no let up, with almost half of all UK biotech companies formed within the last three years.

Imara has raised $63m to pursue its PDE9 inhibitor for sickle cell disease, and hopes to broaden the Phase II drug candidate into related blood disorders such as beta thalassemia.

Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research has pledged €40m over four years to the antibacterial accelerator CARB-X, part of an overall €500m the country has committed to fighting superbugs in the next decade.

Merck & Co is moving into analgesia with a deal signed with Kings College London for an early program that has the potential to create a novel class of pain medications with reduced side effects.

All-stock transaction combines privately held Oncternal with GTx, which had been considering its strategic alternatives. Biogen acquires gene therapy biotech Nightstar, MaxCyte and Kite expand their CAR-T partnership.

A Danish company with a novel approach to gene editing for antibacterials has raised $50m in a series A round, using the cash injection to advance its ambition to be testing drug candidates in humans by 2021.