Among other Asia deals, Takeda adds to pair of recent gene therapy tie-ups with a CNS-focused cell therapy partnership with Immusoft; earlier it licensed ex-US rights to JCR’s Hunter syndrome drug.

Private Company Edition: XtalPi raised $318.8m for its AI-based drug discovery platform and machine learning-enabled Flagship start-up Valo Health has brought in nearly $100m. XtalPi had one of three recent venture capital mega-rounds for China-based companies.

Private Company Edition: The average exit from biopharma investments rose from $356.8m in 2019 to $520.6m in 2020, explaining the staggering $12bn invested in the industry during the first half of this year versus $17bn for all of last year. In recent VC deals, VelosBio’s $137m series B was the largest. 

Recent regulatory events and dealmaking highlight an increase in the pace of innovation in rapid infectious disease testing.