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.

The venture capitalist builds biotechs from scratch and with this latest fund, MPM is looking to add to its sector-leading record of 49 FDA-approved drugs and over 100 IPOs and acquisitions.

Private Company Edition: Investments by CIRM, the GHIT fund and the European Investment Bank back early-stage science and treatments for neglected diseases. Also, Versant Ventures raises $700m in two funds. In VC deals, Akero raised $70m, Impel NeuroPharma brought in $67.5m.