More than 75 industry executives and experts gazed into the crystal ball and shared with Scrip their predictions around transformative technologies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, AI was the dominant theme – but gene editing, cell therapies and new targeting modalities were also among the highlights.

Plus deals with Synaffix/Emergence, Helsinn/Juniper and Sanyou/Shanghai KangaBio, while Takeda/Finch and Dong-A/Beactica ended prior collaborations. 

Heading into the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, pharmas have been focusing on discovery alliances. J&J’s deals look into novel tissue-targeted drugs, ionic liquid delivery technology and cancer vaccine R&D. Lilly teams with Entos on novel methods for delivering neurology drugs.

Private Company Edition: The astonishing pace of venture capital investment in drug development continues with another $1.5bn in financings of $100m or more, including $152m for Pyxis and $126m for Omega. New VC funds also continue to launch, including RiverVest’s fifth fund, totaling $275m.