With biopharma venture capital investment of $9.67bn during the first half, 2018's total is on track to beat 2017 in the third quarter. IPOs, one of the factors fueling VC investment, continue to boom with five more drug developers slated to go public this week.

Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.

Suzhou-based immuno-oncology specialist CStone raised a $260m Series B round and Brii launched with $260m in Series A cash to develop drugs for the China market. Also, multiple start-ups launched recently with more than $50m in Series A rounds, including Ansun, Beam, Casma, Celsius and Neurana.

Private Company Edition: Celgene's former top deal-maker George Golumbeski is now a life science business consultant and venture partner at ARCH. Also, a VC investment surge portends another big year for biopharma, including $85m for Ansun and $66m for FogPharma.