Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA got the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on its feet and dancing with Germany’s largest IPO in more than 18 months Oct. 9. The €808 million (US$934.23 million) gave the prosthetics company a market capitalization of €4.2 billion (US$4.88 billion), which rapidly rose as the share price shot up from €66 to €72 at the start of trading. The second med-tech to go public in October should have more company soon, with U.S. molecular diagnostics company Billiontoone Inc. filing Oct. 7 for an IPO with placeholder value of $100 million.

In one of the biggest deals of the waning year, Novo Nordisk A/S is buying Akero Therapeutics Inc. to bolster its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)-treatment portfolio. In the $5.2 billion deal, Akero brings its fibroblast growth factor 21 analogue, efruxifermin, which is in a phase III study for treating those with moderate to advanced liver fibrosis and those with cirrhosis.

Owens & Minor Inc. (O&M) is shedding its Products & Healthcare Services (P&HS) segment with an eye towards expanding its leadership position in the home-based care space. The company has agreed to sell its P&HS segment to Platinum Equity, a private equity firm. Platinum will pay $375 million in cash, while Richmond, Va.-based O&M retains a 5% equity stake in the business.

In a deal that could top $2 billion, China-based Innocare Pharma Ltd. licensed the exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to the BTK inhibitor orelabrutinib to Zenas Biopharma Inc. for multiple sclerosis and other indications aside from oncology.

Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is licensing Hinge Bio Inc.’s multispecific antibody-based therapy HB-2198 in Japan for multiple autoimmune indications, starting with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Nanyang Biologics Pte. Ltd. has entered a $1.5 billion business combination agreement with RF Acquisition Corp II, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company. Singapore-based Nanyang Biologics (NYB) is building a hybrid platform to revolutionize drug discovery by combining machine learning with natural compound libraries, and NYB claims it is developing one of the world’s largest AI-curated collections of bioactive compounds.

In a deal that could bring more than $2.1 billion in payments to Arbor Biotechnologies Inc., 90-year-old Chiesi Group gained exclusive and global rights to develop and commercialize ABO-101 for primary hyperoxaluria type 1, an ultra-rare disease caused by a mutation in the AGXT gene, as well as an option to go after a limited number of additional targets.

Like a scene from a movie, a British beauty influencer and a German disabled war veteran could provide just the spark that Europe needs to open its financial heart to med-tech companies in need of love and cash. The Beauty Tech Group, which sells a range of U.S. FDA-cleared aesthetics devices popular with global influencers, raised £106.5 million ($144 million) in an IPO Oct. 3 on the beleaguered London Stock Exchange.

Nanyang Biologics Pte. Ltd. has entered a $1.5 billion business combination agreement with RF Acquisition Corp II, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company. Singapore-based Nanyang Biologics (NYB) is building a hybrid platform to revolutionize drug discovery by combining machine learning with natural compound libraries, and NYB claims it is developing one of the world’s largest AI-curated collections of bioactive compounds.

Boston Scientific Corp. continues to prove out its strategy of active acquisitions combined with industry-leading organic growth with the closing of its $88 million acquisition of Elutia Inc.’s Bioenvelope business and very positive targets for growth presented during its investor day on Sept. 30.