Private Company Edition: Alexis Borisy and his Curie.Bio co-founders will invest $5m-$7m to help companies get to lead optimization within 12-18 months. Also, Feng Zhang-founded Aera launched with $193m, Hexagon Bio raised a $77.3m series B round and Halda emerged with $76m.

Private Company Edition: With $8.9bn raised in the second quarter, venture capital investment in biopharma companies reached its second highest quarterly total to date – behind only Q1 of this year. Also, Nimbus Therapeutics raised $105m and European drug developers get in on the VC action. 

Nearly £1.6bn was invested in the pharma, biotech and life sciences sector in the UK from March to May, which means £2.39bn has been raised in the year to date, more than in the whole of 2020.

Bayer is paying $425m upfront to acquire KaNDy Therapeutics, whose CEO tells Scrip that the German group was always the preferred partner due to its long-standing commitment to women’s health.