More than 100 biopharma executives and experts told Scrip their predictions for therapeutic area advances in the coming year. The recent commercial success of GLP-1s in diabetes and obesity and their potential in further disease areas fuelled excitement around the metabolic space. Expectations were also positive in neurology following the launch of Leqembi for Alzheimer’s disease in 2023, while the multiple opportunities to improve cancer treatment kept oncology top of the pile overall.

Neuroscience and oncology fuel high hopes for therapeutic R&D progress among 90-plus surveyed biopharma industry leaders.

Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma and two other investors plan to spend $8.3 million to take shares of Create Vaccine, a Japan-based developer of tuberculosis vaccine injections, according to sources.

Once an unlikely scenario, corporate venture funds now are making up a larger and larger part of investment rounds for early-stage biotechs; these investments are buoyed by VCs launching their own firms. Plus news on recent financing activity from Avaxia Biologics, Clovis Oncology, Protagonist Therapeutics and Dermira.