Eli Lilly and Co.’s buyout of Ventyx Biosciences Inc. for $1.2 billion at the start of the year brought to the forefront NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inhibitors on which a handful of developers have been working, and research in the space continues to roll out, as with the paper published March 26 in Nature that delved into mechanisms that rev up the NLRP3 inflammasome.

Nvision Imaging Technologies GmbH raised $55 million in a series B financing round led by Abbott Laboratories for its quantum-enhanced sensing platform, Polaris, which uses quantum technology to boost the MRI signal of sugar-based imaging agents to enable real-time measurement of metabolism on standard MRI systems. Sella Brosh, CEO and co-founder of Nvision, told BioWorld that the funds are extremely important as the company is scaling the Polaris systems to many more sites worldwide, which is a capital intensive process.

In a deal that could be worth up to $1 billion for Suzhou Siran Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (Siranbio), GSK plc licensed exclusive worldwide rights to the siRNA oligonucleotide SA-030, which has recently entered phase I trials for cardiometabolic disease.

Metis Techbio Co. Ltd. is seeking a potential HK$2.11 billion (US$270 million) raise through a stock sale May 13, marking the largest biotech raise on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year to date. Hangzhou, China-based Metis is an AI-based nanoparticle drug formulation and delivery-focused company. Synthetic lethality-based cancer drugmaker Impact Therapeutics Inc., of Shanghai, plans to debut on the same day with a US$117 million IPO.

Fractyl Health Inc. has received clinical trial application authorization in the Netherlands to initiate a first-in-human phase I/II study of RJVA-001, the first clinical candidate from the company’s Rejuva Smart GLP-1 gene therapy platform.

Shares of MBX Biosciences Inc. hit a 52-week high on preliminary phase I data for its MBX-4291, a GLP-1/GIP co-agonist prodrug for obesity. Though early and still blinded, findings from the trial showed promising efficacy, along with good tolerability and the potential for once-monthly dosing, factors that will likely be critical for MBX to compete in the crowded obesity space.

Reports that Sanofi SA has asked to withdraw its sBLA for Tzield (teplizumab) from the U.S. FDA’s Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program is once again raising questions about whether leadership skepticism is overruling approval decisions at the agency.

In a deal that could be worth up to $1 billion for Suzhou Siran Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (Siranbio), GSK plc licensed exclusive worldwide rights to the siRNA oligonucleotide SA-030, which has recently entered phase I trials for cardiometabolic disease.