Public Company Edition: Blade will merge with a special purpose acquisition corporation to go public, Bluebird spins out 2seventy with $442m in cash and Compass raises $125m in a move to the Nasdaq. 

Investors were spooked by mixed results from Alector’s lead candidate but the company’s CEO hit out at ‘hype’ around the biomarker  neurofilament light chain.

Denali Therapeutics has reported promising early clinical data in Hunter syndrome for its fusion protein, DNL310, an investigational agent that crosses the blood-brain barrier and is expected to address disease-associated CNS effects; however, some biomarker data disappointed, and there are potential competitors also under development.

Flagship, the investor behind COVID-19 success story Moderna, has raised a huge fund that will be used to create and develop its own companies before spinning them off.