In last year’s acquisition, Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to pay Celgene investors another $9 per share based on three approvals, including idecabtagene vicleucel (bb2121) by 30 March 2021.

Private Company Edition: The average exit from biopharma investments rose from $356.8m in 2019 to $520.6m in 2020, explaining the staggering $12bn invested in the industry during the first half of this year versus $17bn for all of last year. In recent VC deals, VelosBio’s $137m series B was the largest. 

Public Company Edition: Drug developers continue to take advantage of investors’ preference for biotechnology investments, with CRISPR, Acceleron and BioNTech raising massive sums. The wealth isn’t spreading to everyone, however, as DBV Technologies is restructuring and cutting jobs. 

Data for new genetic methods to tackle severe hemoglobinopathies presented at the EHA meeting bring more confidence for bluebird’s gene therapy LentiGlobin and early suggestions of a functional cure with CRISPR gene editing with CRISPR Therapeutics/Vertex’s CTX001.