Public Company Edition: The closure of Silicon Valley Bank sank biotech stocks in the first full week of March, but valuations rose the next week when two big acquisitions were announced. Also, J&J’s consumer health spinout sold $7.75bn in notes ahead of its future IPO and Karuna grossed $400m in a follow-on offering.

As Japan faces skyrocketing syphilis cases, hopes have been high among domestic physicians for a single-dose therapeutic in the form of benzylpenicillin injection. But the country has approved the drug only recently and in answer to a push from doctors on the front line.

The biopharma industry may not have been the fastest adopter of artificial intelligence, but its vast potential means companies of every shape and size know they cannot ignore it. Executives, advisors and investors share their predictions around the impact of AI in 2023.

Last year, the European Commission approved a record 55 therapies containing a new active substance, including 21 medicines for rare diseases. Among them were a number of gene therapies for indications such as cancer and hemophilia.