Created to take on Nasdaq in the US, the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market is celebrating its two-year anniversary with star performers such as CanSino. But its viability as an alternative will be tested by BeiGene, which is set to start trading in Shanghai following dual listings in New York and Hong Kong, with the latter continuing to attract other biopharma IPOs.

To bolster its life sciences and diagnostics portfolios, Novo Holdings has made another major investment to acquire BBI Group.

Public Company Edition: The pace of US initial public offerings slowed a bit in April and May but could ramp back up in June as biopharma investor sentiment rebounds. Also, drug developers continue to go public via SPAC mergers, most recently Valo Health with a $2.8bn post-deal valuation.

Akebia brings in Cyclerion’s diabetes candidate praliciguat, plus deals involving Genmab/Bolt, Auris/Trasir, Zymergen/Lodo, Bavarian Nordic/Dynavax and more.