A number of anti-TIGIT drugs are jockeying for position to provide benefit as monotherapies and in combinations for non-small cell lung cancer and Merck's offering is looking to challenge Roche's tiragolumab for the lead.

Public Company Edition: iTeos, Annexon, Nurix and Inozyme went public on 23 July and now CureVac has added its name to the IPO queue for what could be a large offering. Also, BioNTech raises $511.5m as COVID-19 vaccine progresses and PTC gets $650m from sale of risdiplam royalties. 

Public Company Edition: June has seen 14 initial public offerings by drug developers (and one big biopharma funder) after there were only 15 from January through May – and the month isn’t over yet. Follow-on and other offerings also are hitting the market at a rapid pace.

Vibostolimab is less advanced than Roche’s competing tiragolumab, but Merck thinks the combo of its anti-TIGIT and Keytruda will offer a better therapeutic profile.