Pharma moves Phase III-ready antibody to prevent pneumonia to Aridis, licenses preclinical STING inhibitors from F-star. Sanofi teams with SRI on AI-directed discovery, Biogen licenses BTK inhibitor from InnoCare.

EQT and Goldman Sachs to pay $8.5bn in Parexel’s second private equity buyout in four years.

Private Company Edition: Nine new venture capital mega-rounds include Insilico’s series C, $250m from Blackstone for a CAR-T therapy spinout from Intellia and a $210m series B round for Umoja.

Goldman Sachs backs CRO Aragen, which it believes is well placed to gain from the “secular trend” of an outsourcing uptick by biopharma. Aragen has a string of alliances and is also assisting with both vaccine and test kit development against SARS-CoV-2 for its customers.