Private Company Edition: FogPharma raised $145m for its clinical-stage drug and earlier programs after bringing on former Johnson & Johnson R&D head Mathai Mammen as CEO last year. Also, BlossomHill closed a $100m series B round and Kenai emerged with $82m in series A cash.

Plus deals involving Biocytogen/Radiance, Maruho/AOBiome, LGChem/Rhythm, IASO/Umoja, JW Therapeutics/2seventy and 13 other transactions.

AbbVie pays $130m up front with up to $870m in earnout potential for UCB spinout focused on SV2A modulators. BioNTech gets rights to preclinical TCR candidates for solid tumors from Medigene.

Many industry leaders expect broad progress in the field of RNA technologies following the rapid and successful roll-out of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 last year. Genetic medicines of various types, emerging platforms for tackling previously “undruggable” targets and the microbiome were among other areas singled out as areas to watch in 2022.