With $250m in series A funding, Cambridge, MA-based Centessa is looking to upend traditional biopharma R&D models. The new company was created through the merger of 10 private biotechs, which will sit under the Centessa umbrella as subsidiaries.

In an interview with Scrip, CEO Saurabh Saha elaborates on the first-of-its-kind R&D model.

Private Company Edition: Venture capital invested in pharma and biotech in 2020 totaled $19.5m through Q3, just $400m below the full-year record total of $19.9bn in 2018. Also, Canaan and Catalio reveal new VC funds, while Talaris’s $115m series B leads recent financings.