Weak broader stock market sentiment, topped with negative biotech industry news, weighs on Korean bioventure IPOs in the first quarter, with unicorn Voronoi withdrawing its IPO plan. But VC financing in the sector remains steady.

Hyundai Bioscience’s niclosamide-based oral antiviral moves into Phase II, joining other Korean COVID-19 treatment candidates in the pivotal trial stages, while SK Bioscience’s Phase III recombinant protein vaccine gears up for global market entry.

AbbVie pays $130m up front with up to $870m in earnout potential for UCB spinout focused on SV2A modulators. BioNTech gets rights to preclinical TCR candidates for solid tumors from Medigene.

Totals for aggregate deals and in the M&A, alliance and divestment categories were similar among the 10 busiest deal makers from 2020 to 2021, but COVID-19 may have driven a more hectic deal-making pace overall in 2020.