Although there weren’t many large-scale partnerships as in previous years, Korean biopharma firms were involved in a broad range of deals across diverse therapeutic areas in 2020, with ADCs, oncology and domestic alliances emerging as key trends. 

The termination of a major idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis collaboration between Bridge Biotherapeutics and Boehringer Ingelheim is a blow to both companies in an increasingly competitive indication, but the Korean biotech says it's still committed to further development of the autotaxin inhibitor and will work out a future development plan.

Plus deals involving BioAtla/BeiGene, OliX/Thea, Chugai/Argenx, Shionogi/HanaVax, TaiGen/Luminairie, Novartis/1Yao.com, Sperogenix/Minoryx, Quantum/Orient EuroPharma and AtomWise/GC Pharma.

Private Company Edition: The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine’s half-year report shows the sector raised $10.7bn in the first half of 2020 versus $9.8bn raised in all of 2019. Also, DCVC Bio closed a $350m fund, new incubator opportunities and VC mega-deals for Dyne and Atomwise.