Outstanding Q1 growth in sales and profits have pleased the markets, and investors are now keen to hear more about AstraZeneca’s 2030 masterplan at its investor day next month.

Incyte will pay $750m to acquire privately held Escient and its first-in-class oral antagonists of Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors X2 and X4.

M&A edition: Mergers by Century/Clade, Eliem/Tenet, Kintara/TuHURA, Aditxt/Appili, Onconova/Traws and Apotex/Searchlight follow other companies joining forces in a tight cash environment.

Notable new drug approvals in South Korea last year included Pfizer’s Tukysa, Genentech’s Columvi and BeiGene’s Tevimbra, but the tally did not include any domestically-originated products. Alzheimer’s disease therapy lecanemab may be on the horizon this year.