Private Company Edition: Atea and Phlow receive big money for big COVID-19 problems – treatments and manufacturing capacity. Also, Cowen raises a $493m fund and antifungal developer Amplyx increases series C round to $90m, among other recent VC deals.

Expensive acquisitions are in the spotlight during earnings season. The purchases of Kite and Celgene by Gilead and Bristol-Myers Squibb are not turning out to be what was written on the tin.

Acquisitions and licensing are core to pharma and big biotech growth as pipelines thin and assets lose patent protection. Looking back at significantly sized acquisitions over just five years reveals that half of 2014’s acquisitions can already be judged as outright failures or, at best, questionable. But some lessons can be learned from dud deals.

At EASL, Gilead indicated it may not take any of its current NASH candidates forward as monotherapy options. Trial collaboration with Novo Nordisk may suggest pessimism toward selonsertib after Phase III disappointment.