Good news in the biopharma industry and the US economy gave public drug developers the boost they needed to raise cash, including Karuna’s $750m offering. Private company financings slowed during the second week of August, but Prellis and Vector BioPharma raised venture capital.

The Belgian firm has the go-ahead from the US FDA for an advanced depression program for ANT-01 including the endpoint of improvement in cognitive function, which could differentiate its label.

The third annual listing of In Vivo’s ‘Rising Leaders’ includes entrepreneurs and innovators from across the world who represent the next wave of creativity in health care.

A new national project to support bioventures and the venture capital funds investing in them has started in Japan. The strategic aim of the JPY50bn initiative is to enhance the speed of development and trials of new drugs and vaccines for infectious diseases, the lack of which became obvious since the breakout of COVID-19.