Private Company Edition: Two companies raised multiple hundreds of millions of dollars each helping to keep the number of $100m-plus venture capital mega-rounds on the rise in May. Also, Ascend raised $132.5m to make gene and cell therapies, and Nido emerged with $109m for neurological diseases.

VITROS COVID-19 tests from Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics have been cleared by the US FDA, establishing regulatory pathway for future similar tests.

Gilead has waived its option to acquire Pionyr, allowing the US biotech to explore other partnerships and financing opportunities as it advances a promising pipeline of macrophage-targeting antibodies.

Big biologic makers line up on opposite sides of dispute between Amgen and Sanofi over whether Amgen’s Repatha patents cover analogous antibodies with the same functional characteristics.