Takeda's $50m+ deal for Enterome's EB8018 is based on a separate platform from that being used under the French company's collaboration with Johnson & Johnson.

It's time for In Vivo's10th annual Deals of the Year contest. We've selected 15 nominees in three categories – Top Alliance, Top Financing and Top M&A – and you get to pick the winners. (It's free.) First up, the top five picks for most significant strategic alliance of 2017.

Takeda will pair five cancer candidates with different mechanisms of action with Nektar's NKTR-214 and Merck follows up its Phase III disappointment verubecestat by licensing a preclinical Alzheimer's drug from Teijin.

NuBiyota is setting up a local presence to tap into China’s growing commitment to developing new therapeutics based on the microbiome, an area the country is increasingly supporting through central initiatives as part of a national precision medicine program, and where new partnerships are emerging.