Public Company Edition: The closure of Silicon Valley Bank sank biotech stocks in the first full week of March, but valuations rose the next week when two big acquisitions were announced. Also, J&J’s consumer health spinout sold $7.75bn in notes ahead of its future IPO and Karuna grossed $400m in a follow-on offering.

Mid-sized M&A, collaborations, creative financing, and biotech consolidation will feature in 2023. IPOs and follow-ons play bit-parts.

The company is spending up to £562m to acquire artificial intelligence/machine learning provider InstaDeep, which it has partnered with since 2020, as competitor Moderna has made digital technology a cornerstone of its strategy. 

The deal focuses on the HER2-targeting bispecific antibody zanidatamab, in development for multiple solid tumor indications expressing HER2.