Lantern, Avidity, Generation Bio and Vaxcyte launched initial public offerings during the second week of June as biopharma continues to intrigue IPO investors. Also, Blackstone invested $350m in Reata's bardoxolone and Checkmate’s $85m series C led recent VC deals. 

Biotech hopes this initial approval will be followed by approvals of Pemazyre in bladder cancer, first-line cholangiocarcinoma and possibly even a tumor-agnostic indication for FGFR-mutated cancers.

Deals involving Hoth/Voltron, Vir/Xencor, Akers/Premas, WPD/CNS address coronavirus outbreak. Separately, Roche and Forge hope to develop a novel antibiotic for Gram-negative infections using the LpxC enzyme.

Recommending new medicines for approval and allowing sponsors of others extra time to answer outstanding questions are among the many tasks on the agenda of the March meeting of European Medicines Agency's key scientific committee, the CHMP. The meeting has been taking place, remotely, this week.