Olema launched this year’s 75^th US biopharma IPO. Also, investments in regenerative medicines reached a new high, Qiming closed a $1.2bn China-focused VC fund, D3 Bio led recent venture deals with a $200m round, and Bausch sold $2bn worth of notes to pay down near-term debts.

New strategies to overcome safety, solid tumor and other challenges associated with CAR-T therapies – and some early clinical data for patients treated with Poseida's, Celyad's and Autolus' novel products – were featured at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting.

Nektar taps into Lilly's immunology know-how for fast development of NKTR-358, which targets IL-2 to stimulate the body's own inflammation-inhibiting Tregs rather than suppress the immune system.

Five-year collaboration between the Indiana-based pharma and university also hopes to develop predictive modeling for clinical development success.