Private Company Edition: The global accelerator has new commitments from HHS and the Wellcome Trust. Also, Apollo buys into Sofinnova Partners with an up to €1bn investment, Castle Creek raised $124.6m in private funding this year in lieu of an IPO and Remix closed a $70m series B round. 

Biotech licenses drug composition patents from University of Alaska Fairbanks for study in several disease states. Gilead seeks long-acting HIV therapy or prevention with broadly neutralizing antibodies discovered by Rockefeller U.

With later-stage in-licensing assets becoming harder to find, Merck is seeking to work more often and in varied ways with academic and institutional researchers to advance its pipeline. Recent tech transfer deals include Cancer Research UK’s transactions with ProNAi and Artios.

Moderna and Intarcia lead recent fundraisings; big pharma backing includes Novartis leading Series A for Inflazome and Pfizer for diabetes play Antolrx. Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Venture Funding Deals column provides a comprehensive monthly review of emerging biopharmaceutical companies that have received venture funding. This month’s column covers deals announced August through September 2016.