Plus deals involving Avalo/AlmataBio, AbbVie/Parvus, NovaBay/Eyenovia, Bayer/Aignostics, Merck & Co./Pearl, tech transfer agreements and deals in brief.

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.

A planned Phase II trial for PLK1 inhibitor onvansertib in KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer may support accelerated approval, but results are two years off and the company cut its prostate cancer plans to conserve cash.

Biotech licenses drug composition patents from University of Alaska Fairbanks for study in several disease states. Gilead seeks long-acting HIV therapy or prevention with broadly neutralizing antibodies discovered by Rockefeller U.