Therapyx and Intravacc are optimizing a candidate gonorrhea vaccine following promising results in primates and the granting of a three-year SBIR award by the US NIAID.

Editas regains rights to ocular programs first partnered with Allergan in 2017. Newly public F-star will focus on bispecific antibodies for cancer, TriSalus acquires oncology candidate from Dynavax.

Device fundraising during the fourth quarter totaled $2.6 billion, making it the strongest quarter of the year. Q4 M&A activity reached $3.9 billion, higher than Q3's $3.4 billion, but still one of the lowest quarters of the year. Both fourth quarter diagnostics financings and M&As hit an all-year low of $622 million, and $2.8 million, respectively.

The global molecular diagnostics market will grow by $2.4 billion over the next five years according to a global market report from Medtech Insight. Major factors contributing to the healthy growth of this market include advances in technology, as well as the growing understanding of the human genome, pharmacogenomics and the relationship between genes and disease/infection.