After investing in the California biotech, Lilly buys the company in search of safer insulin products. The pharma sees these candidates as pairing with tirzepatide to improve diabetes therapy overall.

Private Company Edition: Life science firms in J&J's JLabs incubators have raised $9.4bn to date from deals and financings, including five IPOs. Also, October brings a wide range of new equity and VC financings.

The big biotech takes options on preclinical Tyk2 and STING programs. REGENXBIO drops out of the bidding for Dimension, ceding to Ultragenyx, and Eisai licenses four drugs to Uruguay’s Grupo Biotoscana.

The diabetes market presents competitive, commercial, and regulatory challenges, but its size and breadth spur emerging biotechs to develop an ever-wider range of treatments and technologies.