EcoR1 and Casdin/Corvex took their second and third special purpose acquisition corporations public. Also, Ionis sold notes to buy back older notes and fund operations as it cut 70% of Akcea’s staff. In venture capital, ValenzaBio raised $70m and RA boosted Metagenomi’s series A to $75m.

Private Company Edition: Clover’s $230m financing was the largest of recent mega-rounds. Century Therapeutics ($160m), Vividion ($135m) and eGenesis ($125m) also raised big rounds and investors Foresite Capital ($969m), Sofinnova Partners ($540m) and OMX Ventures ($150m) raised new VC funds. 

The Danish major will develop the US firm's technology and use it on current and future pipeline assets with the aim of making more biologics orally available.

With GLP-1 sales increasing by 31% in the third quarter, Novo Nordisk has raised its sales and operating profit outlooks for 2020 to 5-8% at CER, and has outlined promising R&D progress against atherosclerosis and obesity.