Industry experts expect a continued uptick in deals valued between $2bn-$10bn this year as buyers look to add critical mass in areas like oncology, rare disease and cell and gene therapy. Divestitures to free up capital and narrow focus should continue too.

It has been a bumpy ride for some of the (still modest) number of European biotechs listed on Nasdaq, for various reasons. Yet most expect the direct-to-Nasdaq trend to continue. Europe’s public markets simply cannot compete.

The US Nasdaq exchange has become the only option for ambitious UK and European biotechs.

Cryoport is a unique company in its niche – supporting regenerative medicine clinical trials and commercial products with cold chain logistics – and has designs on becoming a full supply chain partner for the biopharma industry. CEO Jerry Shelton explained the company’s current role and future plans to In Vivo during the recent Jefferies Healthcare conference.

Lyon, France-based Novadiscovery is developing a user-facing technology to run in silico studies, a method it expects to cut development costs and improve trial success rates. But acceptance of “new” data types is often a concern for drug developers, despite world-leading regulatory bodies stating their desire for 21^st century approaches.

Steven Powell, chair of the board at Cambridge Cognition, talks about the group’s latest spin-off company, Monument Therapeutics.

UK-centric investment firm Syncona’s model of “founding, building and funding” early-stage biotech companies – with a commitment to the longer term – hopes to help make Great Britain a cell and gene therapy powerhouse.

An interactive look at recent executive-level company changes and promotions in the biopharma, medical device and diagnostics industries.

In the latest instalment of our VC playbook series, In Vivo sits down with Roel Bulthuis, managing partner at INKEF Capital, to discuss the group’s approach to health care investing in Europe, the importance of funding a team not just a project and how life sciences venture capital is evolving with the emergence of health tech.

EU medical device consultant Trevor Lewis takes note of the recent, if belated, progress towards the building of the post-MDR playing field for medical device companies in Europe, but calls political decision-makers and economic operators to account: getting it right is nothing short of a matter of life and death, he tells In Vivo.

Maximizing patient access to innovative and effective treatments will require increased transparency, improved outcomes data analyses, dynamic contract management and perhaps most importantly, good faith on both sides.

Industry has the tools to bring more and far better treatments to more people faster than ever, with much lower R&D cost and very little selling needed for these targeted therapies – a perfect prescription for slashing prices for global access while preserving profits, argues Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Dealmaking column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced January 2020.

Gene therapy dominated the top December deals, with a $2.9bn alliance between Roche and Saretpta for DMD treatment SRP9001, and Astellas's $3bn acquisition of Audentes Therapeutics. Follow-on public offerings made up close to or more than half of both biopharma and device financing.