Pipeline is concentrated around Phase II, but sponsors have a few chances to see how FDA handles its ‘foundational constructs’ for psychedelic drugs, led by Lykos’ pending NDA for PTSD and Compass Pathways’ Phase III synthetic psilocybin COMP360 for treatment-resistant depression.

Private Company Edition: Iambic, formerly known as Entos, closed a $100m series B venture capital round to advance its AI-discovered therapeutics. Also, Evozyne raised $81m and Acesion brought in €45m in series B rounds, while Mogrify added $10m to bring its series A to $46m.

Pyrotech Therapeutics and Worg Pharmaceuticals are among the few Chinese biotechs to have bagged fresh large funding round from venture capital and private equity investors over the past month.

Already partnered on antibody-drug conjugates and a Phase III breast cancer candidate, Merck could pay up to $9.3bn under its third pact in 2022 with Kelun. Eisai divests Fycompa to Catalyst.