Private Company Edition: Publicly held Ascendis outsourced its preclinical AMD program to private Eyconis. Also, Innovation Endeavors revealed a new $630m VC fund and Mirae raised $50m for its first life science fund, while Accent, Comanche and Tr1X each brought in $75m rounds.

Neuroscience and oncology fuel high hopes for therapeutic R&D progress among 90-plus surveyed biopharma industry leaders.

The COVID-19 pandemic drove huge shifts in clinical trial practice and the transformation is expected to continue even after the global health emergency abates. Industry leaders sharing their predictions around clinical development homed in on decentralized trials, digitization and data tools as key topics for 2022.

Many industry leaders expect broad progress in the field of RNA technologies following the rapid and successful roll-out of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 last year. Genetic medicines of various types, emerging platforms for tackling previously “undruggable” targets and the microbiome were among other areas singled out as areas to watch in 2022.