Private Company Edition: Alexis Borisy and his Curie.Bio co-founders will invest $5m-$7m to help companies get to lead optimization within 12-18 months. Also, Feng Zhang-founded Aera launched with $193m, Hexagon Bio raised a $77.3m series B round and Halda emerged with $76m.

As the usual flurry of deals coincides with the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, AbbVie signed an mRNA pact with Anima and a cancer research tie-up with Immunome.

Terray/Calico tie-up will focus on small molecule discovery for diseases of aging, including cancer. Lilly, AstraZeneca sign discovery pacts with Nimbus and Illumina, respectively.

Public Company Edition: MAIA launches a $10m initial public offering, the first in the US since May, but NewAmsterdam opts for the SPAC route to the stock market. Also, Legend raises $350m in a follow-on offering, Iveric obtains access to $250m in debt and Otonomy cuts costs after a Phase II failure.