Heading into the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, pharmas have been focusing on discovery alliances. J&J’s deals look into novel tissue-targeted drugs, ionic liquid delivery technology and cancer vaccine R&D. Lilly teams with Entos on novel methods for delivering neurology drugs.

Private Company Edition: Newpath Partners’ second fund totals $350m, Merck KGaA committed €600m to M Ventures, Eir Ventures raised €122.3m and Breakout Ventures has $112.5m. Recent financings were led by SOTIO ($317.5m), Odyssey ($218m), Avistone ($200m) and Acepodia ($109m).

Executives from J&J, Pfizer and Johns Hopkins share ideas on driving Indian biopharma innovation via innovation centers and incubators set up in association with academic institutions. On the other side of the table, Indian academia highlights the need for industry participation in skill building and the perils of ‘targeted thinking’

Athenex expands its portfolio of T-cell receptor therapy technology under NCI license agreement; PDS Biotechnology accesses institute’s TARP tumor antigen technology.