Private Company Edition: Attovia will advance two anti-IL-31 programs with its $105m in series B funding, while ImmuNext secured $575m in a Royalty Pharma deal for its Sanofi-partnered drug. Also, Bluejay and Aardvark raised $182m and $85m, respectively, in series C rounds. 

Zenas BioPharma plans to have data from four trials – two under way and two starting this summer – for obexelimab, which targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, within about a year and a half.

Quietly but unambiguously, pharma firms are accelerating their diversification away from China and are now looking to other emerging markets for growth, a strategy that reflects increasing pressures from China's volume-based procurement scheme but also US-China tensions and other geopolitical risks.

Joincare Pharmaceutical and partner TaiGen Biotechnology tout preliminary Phase III results in uncomplicated acute influenza for TG-1000, a homegrown follower of Shionogi/Roche’s oral antiviral Xofluza. Novel antivirals for flu were hotly pursued by Chinese developers throughout 2023.