Interview: Twelve months on from exiting Biogen, Al Sandrock is once again leading innovation in neuroscience, and hopes to crack the tau nut in Alzheimer’s and prove that Voyager’s next-generation gene therapy system will be a breakthrough.

Public Company Edition: The last biopharma IPO in the US was on 17 February and none have been scheduled, so far, for March. Also, another SPAC merger is called off, Travere sells $275m worth of notes and Xeris secures $150m in new debt, while Ovid, Passage Bio and others are cutting jobs. 

Private Company Edition: More $100m-plus mega-rounds means another billion-dollar week for venture capital deals, including financings for G2 Bio, Hummingbird and Numab. Also, BioTheryX brings in $92m, Vedere launches with $77m and Eliem raises $60m two months after launching with $80m. 

The Bayh-Dole act of 1980 facilitated deal-making between private-sector firms and research institutions, largely seeding the US biotech industry. Plus, an overview of the latest tech transfer deals.