Biontech SE and Medigene AG have signed a three-year research collaboration to develop T-cell receptor (TCR) based immunotherapies against cancer. Medigene will receive €26 million ($29.5 million) up front and could receive hundreds of millions of euros per drug in milestone payments from the deal, which will also covers research funding for the period of the collaboration.

Med-tech deals are showing a 136% increase in value, partially due to rising interest in digital health technologies, and despite decreasing activity focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. While deal values are up, the opposite is true for M&A values. They have fallen by 15% in comparison with the same time frame last year.

Remix Therapeutics Inc., a company developing small molecules to manipulate RNA processing, stands to earn upward of $1 billion through a new strategic collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV. A Cambridge, Mass.-based startup, Remix last year patented new RNA splicing modulators. It will receive an initial payment of $45 million for research funding plus potential preclinical, clinical, commercial and sales milestone payments, and royalties. Janssen gains exclusive rights to three targets with applications in immunology and oncology.

In a move that stunned and dismayed analysts and investors, Masimo Corp. announced a definitive agreement to acquire Sound United LLC Tuesday evening for $1.025 billion. Masimo’s stock (NASDAQ:MASI) plunged on the news of its intended purchase of the high-performance consumer audio products company, plummeting 39% from $228.84 at Tuesday’s close to $139.60 at Wednesday’s opening bell. Volatility led the Nasdaq to suspend trading in the stock for four minutes before 10 am. The stock recovered slightly during the day to close Wednesday at $147.00.

Collplant Biotechnologies Ltd. has signed a collaboration agreement with 3D bioprinting company Cellink AB for future commercial production of regenerative breast implants. Rehovot, Israel-based Collplant has developed prototypes of 3D bioprinted implants and is evaluating them in preclinical studies. The regenerative implants are designed to degrade over time and be replaced by new, naturally grown breast tissue. The technology aims to overcome the challenges of existing breast procedures that use silicone implants or autologous fat tissue transfer.

After two years of record venture capital financing, which peaked during the first quarter of 2021 with a whopping $38.27 billion raised, investments in biopharma have started to drop off, and industry watchers are expecting a slower deal pace ahead. The same is expected for the IPO market, which saw a record 134 companies go public in 2021. Those trends, combined with big pharma’s hefty cash balances, could mean an M&A surge in 2022, though the availability of special purpose acquisition companies could continue to offer private firms an attractive alternative to a buyout.

Immunogen Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co., having already seen a collaboration collapse in 2018, will try it again. Immunogen granted the exclusive rights to research, develop and commercialize antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that are directed toward targets Lilly will select. Waltham, Mass.-based Immunogen will receive $13 million up front from Lilly and is eligible to receive another $32.5 million in exercise fees if Lilly licenses all the targets. Down the road, Immunogen could receive as much as $1.7 billion in exercise fees and milestones payments.

Quris Technologies Ltd. has inked an agreement with Merck KGaA to assess its BioAI safety prediction platform. The partnership will compare the Quris’ artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform with traditional in vivo and in vitro approaches of evaluating drug safety concerns.

Blue Note Therapeutics Inc. took a new approach to expanding its pipeline of prescription digital therapeutics (PDT) with an exclusive licensing agreement with the University of Sydney for Conquerfear, a metacognitive intervention that helps cancer survivors cope with the fear of disease recurrence. Blue Note has developed its PDTs internally to date but hopes to convert Conquerfear’s elements, which are typically delivered face-to-face, into a PDT for the U.S. and Canada. As a digital therapy, the program could potentially reach many more patients.