The Danish drugmaker is spending some of its semaglutide cash on a mid-stage RNA-based heart failure therapy developed by the German biotech.

Public Company Edition: Fourth quarter 2023 fundraising fell 25.1% from Q4 2022, including a 24.2% drop in follow-on dollars, but recent activity has been robust, including $300m and $350m offerings by 4DMT and Autolus. Also, BMS sold $13bn in notes to fund Karuna and RayzeBio deals.

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.

With a strong late-stage anti-inflammatory molecule in its pipeline, the challenge for Abivax is to garner the funds to take its obefazimod program forward. To that end, the company is continuing to do a major overhaul of personnel and is sharpening its corporate vision.