Additional Chinese coronavirus vaccine makers are now building up capacity, with Beijing-based AIM Vaccine preparing for a 400 million dose per year production capability for mRNA vaccines, while Chengdu-based Clover is to supply up to 414 million doses of its vaccines to GAVI.

Deal-making and financing activities are on the rise for liquid biopsy diagnostic products in 2021 despite questions remaining around whether the technology can unseat standard-of-care biomarker and imaging tests.

US-based, China-focused CANbridge moves into cholestatic liver disease and enzyme replacement therapy via two deals. Plus deals involving LegoChem, TransThera, Morepen, Daiichi Sankyo, Geneseeq, Innocare, Biosplice, Sirnaomics and Walvax.

European biotech companies are finding diverse ways of finding support and financing to propel their potential first-in-class therapies into clinical studies, including sponsorship by patient charities as well as private placements.