The week's round-up includes a new CEO at Synthorx Inc., new sales executives at Aerie Pharmaceuticals and board appointments at BTG, Pertinax Pharma, Realm Therapeutics, Breath Therapeutics, iOnctura, NBE Therapeutics and Inflazome.

The week's round-up includes new CFOs at Shire and BTG and Neurocrine Biosciences, a new CEO at Gamida Cell, a new general counsel at Scynexis, and a new head for Bayer's consumer health division.

Third-quarter biopharma financing, which totaled $12.5 billion, was dominated by follow-on public offerings, which represented virtually half the value. Acquisition activity was headlined by a major move by Gilead in the CART market. Five alliances were signed worth over $1 billion, led by a partnership between two key players, Merck & Co. and AstraZeneca.

A review of biopharma start-up deal-making and financing activity from July through September 2017, based on data from Strategic Transactions, showed that fundraising declined 18% from the previous quarter, however the number of acquisitions doubled to eight.