The company is struggling to grow revenue, and the biggest of its four key late-stage assets had a setback, but novel technologies are fueling an R&D strategy shift towards high potential programs.

Astellas’s fezolinetant is already on the market but Bayer is confident its non-hormonal menopause drug elinzanetant will be able to catch up on the back of demonstrating significant reductions in the frequency and severity of hot flashes in a couple of Phase III trials.

Private Company Edition: Iambic, formerly known as Entos, closed a $100m series B venture capital round to advance its AI-discovered therapeutics. Also, Evozyne raised $81m and Acesion brought in €45m in series B rounds, while Mogrify added $10m to bring its series A to $46m.

Among the latest financing deals, advanced therapeutics such as cell and gene therapies (CGT) continued enjoying the spotlight from venture capital and private equity investors in China. Meanwhile, small molecules with novel mechanism of action such as molecule glue stood out from their peers to win investors’ favor.