Cancer deals involve City of Hope/Chimeric, CARISMA/NYU, Sorrento/Mayo Clinic, Rain/Drexel, Diaprost/Memorial Sloan Kettering, Alkido/University of Kentucky. Plus, research collaborations in brief.

After a brief lull in US initial public offerings, PainReform and three special purpose acquisition companies kicked off September’s IPOs. Also, Immunovant offering grossed $173.9m, Carlyle Group bought 5% stake in China’s Salubris and Erasca increased its series B to $236m. 

Continuing parent firm Gilead’s busy deal-making year in immuno-oncology, Kite gets option rights to new targets. Boehringer teams with Israel’s BiomX in IBD research.

Spectrum is expanding a clinical trial with its novel, oral pan-HER inhibitor poziotinib into the first-line treatment of NSCLC with EGFR or HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations, which could provide a much-needed new option for these patients. The move also marks further positive development progress for the drug, which the US firm licensed in from Hanmi.