The ARCHER study did not show improvement in lesion growth, but still showed an improvement in best corrected visual acuity, potentially opening a pathway toward a pivotal trial.

Public Company Financings: Theravance sold its 85% interest in Trelegy royalties from GSK and Innoviva sold its 15% interest for up to $1.8bn in total. Also, ProKidney grossed $597m from its SPAC merger, Pliant raised $200m in a post-Phase IIa offering and Marinus earned $110m in a PRV sale.

A slow start to the year in health care is usually tempered by announcements that build up to investor conference season. However, early 2022’s plethora of negative announcements may continue biotech’s unloved status of 2021.

Public Company Edition: iTeos, Annexon, Nurix and Inozyme went public on 23 July and now CureVac has added its name to the IPO queue for what could be a large offering. Also, BioNTech raises $511.5m as COVID-19 vaccine progresses and PTC gets $650m from sale of risdiplam royalties.