Private Company Edition: Venture capital mega-rounds of $100m or more held steady in April after a slow January and February then a surge in March, but VC fundraising is down overall this year. In recent raises, Enveda series B expanded to $119m, Vedanta brought in $106.5m and Convergent raised $90m.

The recent US approval of Ferring’s microbiome-targeting Rebyota is set to change the treatment landscape for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection and could be the proving ground for this class of agents. Rebyota is the first microbiome-targeting treatment to reach the market, but several promising candidates for the same indication are waiting in the wings.

The UK’s PureTech and US biotech Nektar have ended discussions about a potential merger which analysts did not see coming, but a deal could still happen and other companies may also make a move.

Restructuring Updates: Homology implemented modest job cuts as it ended a gene therapy trial, while ProQR revealed its second round of layoffs this year and Synthetic Biologics shifted focus to oncolytic virus pipeline. Also, Bolt, MacroGenics and others deprioritized programs in their Q2 updates.