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.

In the latest instalment of VC Playbook, In Vivo gets to know Arix Bioscience, a relatively young venture capital firm that went public in 2016. Arix has “has many similarities yet some key differences from a typical venture capital firm,” says the management team.

Three separate agreements team the innovative cancer research center with Takeda, Artios/ShangPharma, and Ziopharm. Hoth continues busy deal-making year by licensing gene therapy from North Carolina State.