The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting will be closely watched by analysts and investors alike. There is no doubt that favorable data presented at the event will advance a company's stock valuation significantly. Equally, candidate cancer therapies that do not live up to expectations will see their developers face the ire of investors.

The pandemic hasn't kept biotechs from going public. In fact, through the first five or so months of the year, the industry has raised more than $3.3 billion through IPOs, more capital than biotechs have raised during the first five months of any of the previous 20 years.

Of the 160 biopharma deals tracked by BioWorld during the month of April, 36% are for collaborations focusing on the development of therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19.

According to an analysis conducted by BioWorld of the first quarter 2020 financial reports filed by the top 100 public biopharmaceutical companies ranked by market cap, and excluding big pharma companies, the amount that was invested in research and development (R&D) during the period increased by 13% compared to the same period last year.

Women, black and Hispanic/Latinx participants were underrepresented in pivotal clinical trials for drugs approved from 2007 to 2017, according to a new report by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. In the pivotal clinical trials, 44.9% of patients were women. Participants who identified as black or of African descent were the most underrepresented participant group, representing 5.4% of participants in clinical trials.