Private Company Edition: Capstan and Engrail raised $175m and $157m, respectively, in series B venture capital rounds in addition to Madrigal’s $400m-plus launch and Clasp’s $150m series A. 

Takeda’s head of multi-country organization, India and Southeast Asia, Dion Warren, tells Scrip how things are shaping for Qdenga in Brazil’s public vaccination program and outlines the contours, including pricing aspects, of the deal with Biological E for the dengue vaccine. The US IND application for the jab is still open.

US FDA and BARDA ask makers of recombinant protein SARS-CoV-2 vaccines how they could match mRNA vaccines in post-strain-selection turnaround time for annual booster doses. The reply: give them a fighting chance by selecting just one strain instead of two.

With only weeks to go in 2022, the three major pharmas each had inked between 16 and 20 deals. Meanwhile, Pfizer has been less busy with 12 deals, but those include M&A totaling $18.2bn.