Plus deals involving OliPass/Vanda, Simcere/Almirall, Sinopharm/Merck & Co., Jiuzhou/Sandoz, Zai Lab/Seagen, Sciwind/SynderK, Hansoh/KiOmed.

Deal Snapshot: The Dutch biotech planned to move its preclinical candidate, the EGFR-targeting LAVA-1223, into the clinic later this year. Seagen has shown interest in business development as Merck merger talks have quieted down.

Spain now enjoys a reasonable level of venture capital to help translate its scientific excellence into budding biotechs and the country's major life sciences backer Ysios is looking to unearth more jewels there, as well as in the rest of Europe and North America.

In this latest installment of VC playbook, In Vivo speaks to Naveed Siddiqi, senior partner at Novo Ventures. He discusses the group’s strategy, the European investment outlook for life sciences and how COVID-19 has permanently shifted perceptions of the biopharma industry.