The Leverkusen-based firm has been touting the potential of its pharmaceutical pipeline which it hopes will be able to help soften the blow of patent expiries on the blockbusters Xarelto and Eylea in the next few years.

The investment is the latest in Bayer’s series of moves into cell and gene therapy, amid growing industry interest in CAR-NKs.

The last six weeks have seen the acquisition of AskBio, the launch of a dedicated cell and gene therapy unit and a CAR-T pact with Atara. Bayer is taking the space very seriously.

Private Company Edition: The flood of venture capital into health care and life science firms continues with Perceptive closing a $1.1bn credit fund and Sanofi investing $50m in Jeito Capital. Also, Ambrx closed a $200m crossover round as biopharma remains on track for a record funding year.