Partnership will use Carna’s proprietary lipid kinase drug discovery platform, bringing another aspect to Gilead’s IO efforts. Catalent continues expansion by acquiring Novavax R&D assets; Genfit licenses elafibranor in China to Terns.

Sanofi returns two partnered assets to Voyager, further unraveling 2015 deal. Celgene drops Mereo cancer candidate ahead of merger with Bristol, while Ultragenyx and Arcturus expand their joint rare disease efforts.

Gilead is elbowing its way into the protein degradation field, seeking to build out a pipeline of oncology drugs in a $45m deal with Nurix. The pool is becoming crowded though, as many other big firms have latched onto this burgeoning field of R&D.

It is a risky business but the biotech major is paying $150m upfront, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars more, to work with Prothena and develop therapies targeted at proteins implicated in highly challenging neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS.