Private Company Edition: Venture capital mega-rounds of $100m or more held steady in April after a slow January and February then a surge in March, but VC fundraising is down overall this year. In recent raises, Enveda series B expanded to $119m, Vedanta brought in $106.5m and Convergent raised $90m.

Plus deals involving Biorchestra, Takeda/F-star, TaiGen/Joincare, Dr Reddy’s/Eris, Kaken/bitBiome, CJ Bioscience/4D Pharma, Ono/Macomics, Daiichi Sankyo/Zymeworks, Celltrion/Genuv and more.

Immix collaborates with Israeli research institutions on BCMA-targeted CAR-T therapy. NeoImmuneTech/NIAID alliance could pave way for “animal rule” approval in acute radiation syndrome.

Despite patient dissatisfaction, contraceptive options have made little advancement since the turn of the century – but a cohort of novel, non-hormonal products could see this all change.