Public Company Edition: PTC will get $350m up front as part of an initial $500m commitment. Also, while Biohaven and Vaxcyte launched traditional follow-on offerings, Recursion and Agios took the private placement and royalty sale routes, while others revealed job cuts and other strategic updates. 

Evolving challenges will keep the COVID-19 pipeline active, while oncology, immunology and CNS are areas also expected to see much progress in 2022. Industry executives look forward to the year in therapeutic R&D.

Many industry leaders expect broad progress in the field of RNA technologies following the rapid and successful roll-out of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 last year. Genetic medicines of various types, emerging platforms for tackling previously “undruggable” targets and the microbiome were among other areas singled out as areas to watch in 2022.

Are three FDA clinical holds in less than four days a symptom of lax safety programs at some biotech companies? And what does the latest publication on Aduhelm say about the relationship between safety and accelerated approval?