Cash-strapped Nanobiotix has received a major boost with the news that J&J unit Janssen is paying $60m in upfront fees and R&D funding to license NBTXR3, which has the potential to enhance the efficacy of radiotherapy in multiple tumor types including head and neck cancer.

Plus deals involving Sanofi/Adocia, Sirnaomics/EDIRNA, Eisai/DRI Healthcare, Sangamo/Voyager, Liquidia/Pharmosa, Tonix/Upsher-Smith and more.

Private Company Edition: Venture capital mega-rounds continue a brisk pace with machine learning-based drug discovery firm insitro and gene therapy developer Graphite Bio among recent $100m-plus deals. Also, Argobio raised €50m to fund five start-ups in Europe. 

A small Cambridge, UK-based company, which is more at home partnering with the pharma industry than competing with it, is readying its run into the diabetes space with its ultra-rapid acting insulin. Scrip talked to its CEO to about the company’s biggest year yet.