The second week of first-quarter earnings featured AbbVie’s announcement and a harsh stock price reaction. There were also far-reaching implications behind the results.

The rate of growth of the pharma pipeline slowed last year as oncology and rare diseases tightened their grip on R&D. There are also further signs of China’s rise in importance in the industry.

Public Company Edition: J&J’s consumer health spinout Kenvue grossed $3.8bn in its public market debut and Acelyrin raised $540m in an upsized IPO. Also, Seres accessed $250m in new debt for Vowst commercialization while follow-on offerings raised $325m for ImmunoGen and $240m for Morphic. 

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.