Public Company Edition: The gene therapy firm’s IPO priced at $18 and ended its first day up 23.3% at $22.20 but fell to $21.50 when stocks recovered on 2 March. Also, RedHill raised $115m for product launches and Movantik purchase, and Avadel raised $65m to compete with Jazz.

Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.

USV Ltd expects to progress studies with Diabetology’s oral insulin in India, five years after the companies signed a licensing deal in 2012. The oral insulins space has seen mixed progress in the recent past, with a high profile pullback and funding support in another instance for an oral insulin candidate.

Biocon’s oral insulin program has received a boost with the US-based JDRF supporting plans to progress its drug candidate in type 1 diabetes. While the pullback of players like Novo Nordisk underscores the potential risks in the oral insulin space, JDRF says early results of Biocon’s candidate “warrant support” for further studies.