Incyte will pay $750m to acquire privately held Escient and its first-in-class oral antagonists of Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors X2 and X4.

Notable new drug approvals in South Korea last year included Pfizer’s Tukysa, Genentech’s Columvi and BeiGene’s Tevimbra, but the tally did not include any domestically-originated products. Alzheimer’s disease therapy lecanemab may be on the horizon this year.

Influencer marketing has emerged as a potent tool for many industries and is a sector set to be worth $22bn in its own right by 2025.

Plus deals involving Incyte/CMS, Biocytogen/ABL, Bharat/Biofabri/Bilthoven, Dr. Reddy’s/Pharmazz, Veeda/Heads, Sosei Heptares/GSK, BioGeometry/Sanyou, Ono/Sibylla and Teijin/BioProjet