The major will use funds from the sale of its male hypogonadism product to invest in future innovation, which is likely to focus on high-risk high-reward cell and gene drug candidates.

The German group is putting another €1.3bn into its Leaps by Bayer investment arm until the end of 2024 to support new companies that are "shifting core paradigms in the sectors of health and agriculture."

Rather than major M&A, CEO Vas Narasimhan has told Scrip that Novartis will carry on doing development and licensing deals and while the firm has noted that the valuations of prospective biotech deals have fallen, "they still remain relatively high."

Nearly a year into the job, research chief Christian Rommel tells Scrip he is impressed with Bayer's arm's length approach to running acquired firms like AskBio and BlueRock and the task ahead is to deliver on the potential they offer, while getting later-stage projects across the approvals finishing line.