Private Company Edition: Venture capital mega-rounds continue a brisk pace with machine learning-based drug discovery firm insitro and gene therapy developer Graphite Bio among recent $100m-plus deals. Also, Argobio raised €50m to fund five start-ups in Europe. 

With the first Revlimid generics launching in 2022, Bristol Myers Squibb’s late-stage assets are key, but earlier programs will help fill the void as Opdivo and Eliquis lose exclusivity later in the decade.

Pharma pays $50m up front to tap insitro’s in vitro modeling technology, partners with Sensyne Health in blood disorders. Lilly’s COVID-19 partner AbCellera teams with Kodiak in ophthalmology R&D.

Merck Research Laboratories president Roger Perlmutter returned to the company when its R&D was at a crossroads. Now he is retiring and handing the company’s post-Keytruda growth over to SVP Dean Li.