Plus deals involving Fujimoto/Egetis, Chugai/Cheplapharm, Celest/Senti, Shionogi/Apnimed, Jiangsu Hengrui/Merck KGaA, Jiangsu Hengrui/Elevar, Sun/Zydus, C4U/Healiva, Shanghai Henlius/Intas, Ono/Turbine, EpimAB/Almirall and Alar/Indivior.

The US FDA approved Fruzaqla (fruquintinib) for previously treated metastatic disease regardless of biomarker status. The drug, already approved in China, was de-risked when Takeda licensed it from HutchMed.

As investment and interest grows in synthetic lethality cancer treatments, Netherlands-headquartered Tesselate Bio hopes to expand horizons within the field by hitting the novel FANCM target and developing its own companion diagnostic.

With positive results from a Phase II proof of concept controlled human infection model study evaluating Neumifil under its belt, the Scottish biotech is preparing to put the drug through its paces in a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease trial next year.