Public Company Edition: Merging with a special purpose acquisition corporation may be an attractive alternative to an initial public offering, but February’s vigorous IPO pace includes seven recent offerings that raised $480.8m in the US. Also, Cassava raised $200m and KalVista brought in $222.5m.

Investors keep piling into biotech stocks and British companies have been reaping the benefits this week.

Ultragenyx hopes to expand its bone disease franchise in a deal that frees up Mereo to focus on its anti-TIGIT immuno-oncology pipeline asset.

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.