Public Company Edition: Merging with a special purpose acquisition corporation may be an attractive alternative to an initial public offering, but February’s vigorous IPO pace includes seven recent offerings that raised $480.8m in the US. Also, Cassava raised $200m and KalVista brought in $222.5m.

IPO Edition: Sana leads the group with a $587.5m initial public offering, while Immunocore and Bolt follow with $200m-plus IPOs. The 10 newly public companies generated a 43.3% average return on 8 Feb.

Private Company Edition: The flood of venture capital into health care and life science firms continues with Perceptive closing a $1.1bn credit fund and Sanofi investing $50m in Jeito Capital. Also, Ambrx closed a $200m crossover round as biopharma remains on track for a record funding year.

Blueprint and Zymeworks raise $300m-plus in follow-on offerings. Also, Arcutis, Black Diamond and Annovis bring the 2020 US IPO count to four; Spring Bank, Surface Oncology and Decibel reveal strategic shifts; and Harmony’s $200m in venture debt leads recent VC deals.