Plus deals involving ASLAN/Zenyaku Kogyo, AstraZeneca/Cholsegen, Astellas/Cullgen, AbCellera/Confo, Blue Water/WraSer, Solve/Cereius, Prime Medicine/Cimeio, Evox/Codiak, PharmaTher/Vitruvias and Adverum/Ray.

Private Company Edition: Two companies raised multiple hundreds of millions of dollars each helping to keep the number of $100m-plus venture capital mega-rounds on the rise in May. Also, Ascend raised $132.5m to make gene and cell therapies, and Nido emerged with $109m for neurological diseases.

Stakeholders are eager for details on the Takeda/Shire merger and on what Trump said to Pfizer CEO Ian Read to cause the recent about-face on price increases. Other key topics will be status updates on Teva's Copaxone franchise and on Novo Nordisk's oral semaglutide.

Takeda is clearly keen on Shire's rare disease therapies, but the future of the ophthalmology business, and notably the dry eye drug Xiidra, is less certain. The shutters may close on Shire's headquarters in Ireland as well.