Multiple sessions at the American Association for Cancer Research Virtual Annual Meeting II covered how COVID-19 is affecting cancer patients, from how clinical trials needed to be modified during the pandemic to how real-world evidence can play a role now and in the future.

Deals tracked by BioWorld indicate a slight slowdown in activity moving from April to May, showing an 8% drop in the number of deals and a 43% drop in the disclosed deal values.

Up-and-coming cell and gene engineering company Sana Biotechnology Inc. raised $700 million in a first round financing, bumping Moderna Inc., which previously had the highest venture capital (VC) financing of a traditional biotech company to date.

The importance of artificial intelligence and machine learning continues to be acknowledged by drug development companies. Recently, to help accelerate the discovery of therapies to treat COVID-19, several deals have been forged to deploy those tools.

In a BIO Digital session on “The Convergence of Health and Tech: Personalizing Medicine Beyond the Imaginable,” panelist Ray Deshaies, Amgen Inc.’s senior vice president of global research, said he was excited for the future of drug research, noting that there is an evolving trend away from the development of monospecific drugs designed to exert their effect on just one specific target.