Private Company Edition: Two companies raised multiple hundreds of millions of dollars each helping to keep the number of $100m-plus venture capital mega-rounds on the rise in May. Also, Ascend raised $132.5m to make gene and cell therapies, and Nido emerged with $109m for neurological diseases.

Pink Sheet’s Drug Review Profile follows the FDA’s navigation of the first expanded umbilical cord blood graft with the first indication grounded in neutrophil recovery and infection incidence data.

Public Company Edition: With the XBI up more than 9% in April, a few follow-on offerings –$23m to support Gamida Cell’s small product launch and $500m to fund Vaxcyte’s large clinical trial program – have made it to market. Also, China’s CytoMed launched the sixth biopharma IPO in the US this year.

The Israeli firm Gamida Cell’s lead candidate has obtained a US approval as a new donor source for allogeneic stem cell transplant with the chips in place for independent commercialization despite its recent financial troubles.