Geron’s highly anticipated telomerase inhibitor has been given a user fee date by the US Food and Drug Administration next year and will also be subject to an advisory committee meeting, despite largely positive analyst sentiment on clinical results to date.

Geron’s telomerase inhibitor will also get standard review for transfusion-dependent anemia in adults with low- to intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), suggesting FDA reviewers may be less bullish on imetelstat’s clinical data than analysts have been.

During Q3, biopharmas brought in an aggregate $18.1bn in financing and device company fundraising totaled $5.1bn; while in vitro diagnostic firms and research tools players raised $771m.

Public Company Edition: Third Harmonic hopes to double its money, raising up to $150m. Also, Halozyme priced a $625m note sale to retire debt and repurchase shares, while Viridian raised $270m in an offering after positive early data, and Clarus cut jobs while Endo finalized a restructuring plan.