CTMC CEO Jason Bock talked to Scrip about the venture between MD Anderson and National Resilience, which provides manufacturing, process development and regulatory support for small cell therapy developers’ preclinical and clinical proof-of-concept studies. Meanwhile, Verge Genomics initiated a Phase Ib study of its AI-discovered drug for ALS; EyePoint and Aviceda dosed patients in their Phase II DME trials; Parexel teamed up with a non-profit cancer research group in Japan; and BARDA selected PPD to run its Phase II platform trial for ARDS.

EQT Life Sciences completed the final close of its inaugural LSP Dementia Fund, far surpassing an initial $100m fundraising goal. Also, Resilience received a $410m commitment from the Department of Defense to fund biomanufacturing and Viking cashed in on Phase I obesity data with a $250m offering.

Private Company Edition: The amount of venture capital raised by biopharma firms fell but individual companies grabbed a lot of cash, making for a remarkable Q2 relative to pre-pandemic times. Recent Q3 rounds includes Frontera’s $160m series B. Also, Oxford Science Enterprises added €250m to its fund.

ARCH Venture Partners brought in $2.975bn for its latest fund to give additional long-term investors a place at the table as the VC firm creates, builds and supports new early-stage biotechnology start-ups.