Taysha gains control of GAN candidate and program; BI licenses COMT inhibitors from Lieber Institute; plus three new gene therapy-driven tie-ups between biopharma and academia.

After a brief lull in US initial public offerings, PainReform and three special purpose acquisition companies kicked off September’s IPOs. Also, Immunovant offering grossed $173.9m, Carlyle Group bought 5% stake in China’s Salubris and Erasca increased its series B to $236m. 

Therapyx and Intravacc are optimizing a candidate gonorrhea vaccine following promising results in primates and the granting of a three-year SBIR award by the US NIAID.

Editas regains rights to ocular programs first partnered with Allergan in 2017. Newly public F-star will focus on bispecific antibodies for cancer, TriSalus acquires oncology candidate from Dynavax.