Private Company Edition: Recent biopharma venture capital financings add up to $1.7bn, including a $135m crossover round for HilleVax after spinning out of Takeda in July to advance a norovirus vaccine, Skyhawk’s $133m in fresh funding and Obsidian’s $115m series B round.

Further promising compounds will be explored after Bristol Myers Squibb exercised its option to enter an exclusive license for Evotec’s investigational EVT8683, generated by the German group’s iPSC platform as a potential treatment for neurodegenerative conditions.

The former Cerecor boasts four pipeline assets that could yield US FDA priority review vouchers. Having divested CNS assets, the renamed firm will focus on IBD with first-in-class anti-LIGHT candidate, plus immunology and rare diseases.

Artificial Intelligence has been hyped as a game changer in drug discovery for the last five years. How far has it come, and how far can it go? In Vivo talks to some of the key players that are creating and shaping the future of the industry.