As the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a toll globally, South Korean pharma firms’ overseas drug development activities are increasingly being disrupted by the impact.

Private Company Edition: The flood of venture capital into health care and life science firms continues with Perceptive closing a $1.1bn credit fund and Sanofi investing $50m in Jeito Capital. Also, Ambrx closed a $200m crossover round as biopharma remains on track for a record funding year.

The termination of a major idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis collaboration between Bridge Biotherapeutics and Boehringer Ingelheim is a blow to both companies in an increasingly competitive indication, but the Korean biotech says it's still committed to further development of the autotaxin inhibitor and will work out a future development plan.

The Korean microbiome therapeutics developer KoBioLabs will launch a domestic IPO later this month and hopes to grow into a top three global company in the sector by 2025, helped by licensing deals.