Taking over at the Swiss firm as CEO in 2018, Vas Narasimhan set about creating an "inspired, curious and unbossed organization." Two years on, he has put the spotlight on several initiatives that are up and running on a number of fronts to achieve that goal.

The global market for robotic surgery systems is expected to reach $9.7bn by 2023. With medtech giants Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson and Zimmer Biomet launching robotic platforms in 2020, this market is set for a major shakeup.

Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb's market-dominating checkpoint inhibitors are competing to find the next combination therapy to treat more cancer patients, in more types of cancers. Recent failures and new regulatory pressure, however, may have a cooling effect, even as researchers come full circle with PD-l/PD-L1 and CTL-4 combinations. The race is also on to pull new combinations from emerging cell therapy and precision oncology drug candidates.

The biopharma sector is often accused of a being a slow-moving engine, but a look back over the last 20 years reveals that a lot has changed. In Vivo explores the history of high-impact M&A transactions in the industry between 1999 and 2019. 

It has been a bumpy ride for some of the (still modest) number of European biotechs listed on Nasdaq, for various reasons. Yet most expect the direct-to-Nasdaq trend to continue. Europe’s public markets simply cannot compete.

The US Nasdaq exchange has become the only option for ambitious UK and European biotechs.