A positive start to the year for healthcare stocks was accompanied, as usual, by drug price increases. This and the other issues that have been carried over from 2020 remain just as challenging.

With Hikma having launched the first generic version of Vascepa (icosapent ethyl) in the US last year, Amarin has again raised the issue of ANDA product supply for the complex purified fish oil brand.

Newly public Aligos will team with Merck & Co. on oligonucleotide therapies for NASH. Maze Therapeutics launches ophthalmology and CV-focused spinouts with Alloy and BridgeBio.

The UK’s Artios has linked up with Merck KGaA in a potentially multi-billion dollar deal to collaborate on discovering and developing up to eight oncology drug targets associated with DNA damage response processes, and is also progressing its own lead compounds through its pipeline.