Mereo will reduce its headcount by 40% to focus on its lead programs while NeuBase revealed a 60% workforce reduction to extend its cash runway. Also, Invivyd (formerly Adagio), Greenlight and BioMarin announced job cuts, while Otonomy and others planned strategic shifts. 

Argenx partners with Elektrofi and Iontas; China’s Qilu obtains global rights to Peptron’s antibody-drug conjugate and also ends co-development pact with Quantum Genomics.

US FDA will add boxed warnings to insomnia drugs, bringing it in line with other regulators, even as a study in JAMA Internal Medicine study indicates that national drug authorities often disagree more broadly over when to issue safety advisories.

Device and diagnostics fundraising slumped in Q2, but there was a substantial uptick in M&A activity. Device financings totaled just slightly over half of the previous quarter, while acquisitions grew almost six-fold, thanks primarily to Becton Dickinson's $23.5 billion play for CR Bard. Financing in diagnostics slid to $1.03 billion, less than half of Q1, whereas the $1.7 billion in M&As (most of that from PerkinElmer's $1.3 billion buy of EuroImmun) was more than double Q1's aggregate.