Private Company Edition: Recent biopharma venture capital financings add up to $1.7bn, including a $135m crossover round for HilleVax after spinning out of Takeda in July to advance a norovirus vaccine, Skyhawk’s $133m in fresh funding and Obsidian’s $115m series B round.

Pacific Biosciences has agreed to pay $600m upfront in cash and stock and up $200m in additional milestone payments to acquire Omniome. PacBio also announced a new private placement of common stock to raise $300m.

Public Company Edition: Eight drug developers launched initial public offerings in the US that grossed $1.46bn combined during the week of 14 to 18 June as biotechnology stock values increased. Also, C4 Therapeutics led recent follow-on offerings, raising $180.8m. 

Illumina announced plans to acquire Grail for about $8bn in September 2020, but the US FTC says the proposed acquisition will diminish innovation in the US market for multi-cancer testing.