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.

The company has assembled small molecule discovery capabilities for the development of targeted cancer drugs that it believes rivals big pharma efforts and will fulfill patients’ unmet needs.

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.

Swiss pharma thinks targeted integrin inhibition could be part of the approach to treating cirrhotic NASH patients, those most at risk of needing a liver transplant.