French pharma makes $180m equity investment in Owkin under collaboration targeting four cancer types. Pyramid gets global license to MPS1 precision cancer candidate from Voronoi.

Private Company Edition: The industry raised $28bn in venture capital through the third quarter, breaking the record $27.4bn raised last year. Also, big pharmas backed a start-up lab in Israel, plus mega-rounds for CinCor Pharma ($143m) and Rectify Pharmaceuticals ($100m), while Cerecin raises $40m.

The firms hope academic research can yield first-in-class therapies and spinout companies. Also, Yale unveils research alliances with three biotechs.

Vibostolimab is less advanced than Roche’s competing tiragolumab, but Merck thinks the combo of its anti-TIGIT and Keytruda will offer a better therapeutic profile.