Private Company Edition: Venture capital mega-rounds of $100m or more held steady in April after a slow January and February then a surge in March, but VC fundraising is down overall this year. In recent raises, Enveda series B expanded to $119m, Vedanta brought in $106.5m and Convergent raised $90m.

The Swiss drug maker will initiate a "mass dismissal" and return rights to its lead drug candidate after the US FDA alerted the company to NDA deficiencies.

Among recent highlights, SK Bioscience files for approval of recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine GBP510, Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s Chinese subsidiary continues to report strong earnings, led by cold drug sales, while Yuhan’s novel peptide drug candidate for degenerative disc disease is set to move into a Phase III trial in the US.

Deal Snapshot: Building on a 2021 tie-up between Takeda and the Paragon start-up, Evozyne will seek novel protein sequences for inclusion in gene therapies for rare disease indications.