Emerging Company Profile: While the UK biotech boasts a promising in-house platform technology, it believes a less restrictive approach to R&D could help it develop superior antibody-drug conjugates for cancer.

Start-up hopes to bring its first candidate, an NY-ESO-1-targeting off-the-shelf product, into the clinic in Q2. Astex and Cardiff University team up on novel therapies for neurodegenerative disease.

The new company will focus mainly on Ayala’s lead candidate for desmoid tumors, but minority owner Advaxis will take over management.

Plus deals with Synaffix/Emergence, Helsinn/Juniper and Sanyou/Shanghai KangaBio, while Takeda/Finch and Dong-A/Beactica ended prior collaborations.