Ahead of the usual flurry of deal-making in January, Roche gets retinal cell therapy candidate from Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Pfizer subsidiary Amplyx licenses antiviral candidate to Vera, and GSK expands neurology tie-up with Ligand.

Private Company Edition: Arbor is developing drugs based on proprietary gene editors, Acrivon is applying proteomics to precision cancer therapies, and bit.bio is producing differentiated cell products. Also, Marengo launches with $80m, Sanofi invests up to $60m in Gyroscope and Shasqi raises $50m.

As Exo awaits FDA clearance for its handheld ultrasound device, it will use the new funding for planned commercialization. Exo has raised more than $320m to date. 

Pharma moves Phase III-ready antibody to prevent pneumonia to Aridis, licenses preclinical STING inhibitors from F-star. Sanofi teams with SRI on AI-directed discovery, Biogen licenses BTK inhibitor from InnoCare.