The potential for RNA medicines to achieve holy grail goals – reaching undruggable targets and bringing drugs to market faster – has Pfizer, Lilly, Novartis and others in a deal-making frame of mind. 

Despite no mega-deals (yet), the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference’s first day brings the usual flurry of deals, including a pair of tie-ups each for Bristol and Pfizer. BioNTech moves into cancer with Crescendo.

Olema launched this year’s 75^th US biopharma IPO. Also, investments in regenerative medicines reached a new high, Qiming closed a $1.2bn China-focused VC fund, D3 Bio led recent venture deals with a $200m round, and Bausch sold $2bn worth of notes to pay down near-term debts.

Public Company Edition: Of five drug developers expected to go public, four have preclinical or early clinical candidates, while the one that could not find a market for its IPO is in Phase III. Also, Biohaven, Zymeworks and Kura raise $100m or more in follow-on offerings.