Public Company Edition: The pace of US initial public offerings slowed a bit in April and May but could ramp back up in June as biopharma investor sentiment rebounds. Also, drug developers continue to go public via SPAC mergers, most recently Valo Health with a $2.8bn post-deal valuation.

Tempest goes public via a reverse merger with Millendo. Takeda inks its ninth deal of 2021, a discovery pact with BridGene around its chemoproteomics technology.

Less than two months after bintrafusp failed to beat Merck & Co's blockbuster Keytruda in a Phase III NSCLC trial, Merck KGaA's bispecific fusion protein partnered with GSK has disappointed in a mid-stage study for biliary tract cancer.

Plus deals involving Sanofi/SIRION, Merck KGAA/Day One, Beijing Tide/Graviton, Vaccinex/Surface Oncology, Athena/Tris, Biomunex/Onward, Cellectis/Cytovia