Private Company Edition: Venture capital invested in pharma and biotech in 2020 totaled $19.5m through Q3, just $400m below the full-year record total of $19.9bn in 2018. Also, Canaan and Catalio reveal new VC funds, while Talaris’s $115m series B leads recent financings.

Having acquired Jecure Therapeutics and its preclinical portfolio of NLRP3 inhibitors just under two years ago, the Swiss giant has swooped in to buy Dublin-based Inflazome and expand its presence in a hot field of inflammatory research.

There are as many rare disease patients as there are diabetics, Cigna’s Steve Miller notes, arguing that exorbitant prices for each treatment could drive counterproductive categorical exclusions by payers.

UK-headquartered company gets further backing from Novo Ventures and other investors convinced of the potential of NLRP3 inhibitors.