A China returnee CEO has raised roughly $50m for his bioventure that is looking to clinically validate and commercialize an RNA activation platform he co-discovered while working in the US.

The big pharma has a gene therapy R&D site in New York from its Prevail Therapeutics buy; the RNA-focused Boston site also will conduct drug delivery research benefitting programs at both locations.

Totals for aggregate deals and in the M&A, alliance and divestment categories were similar among the 10 busiest deal makers from 2020 to 2021, but COVID-19 may have driven a more hectic deal-making pace overall in 2020.

ProQR’s Axiomer platform can enable single nucleotide RNA editing, an approach that could address thousands of disease-causing genetic mutations, the company says.