Private Company Edition: Regeneron launched a $500m venture fund and Canaan added $100m, bringing the venture firm’s recent total to $1bn-plus. Also, incubators plan to grow over the next decade and in recent financings Avenzo raised $150m and Nvelop launched with $100m.

Industry experts at BioFuture 2022 highlighted the growing importance of digital technology in drug discovery and development, and also the limitations remaining.

Private Company Edition: Arbor is developing drugs based on proprietary gene editors, Acrivon is applying proteomics to precision cancer therapies, and bit.bio is producing differentiated cell products. Also, Marengo launches with $80m, Sanofi invests up to $60m in Gyroscope and Shasqi raises $50m.

While liquid biopsy is becoming routine for cancer treatment stratification and monitoring, using blood tests to screen for early cancer in asymptomatic people remains a tantalizing target. Some question how practical such a test could be but several companies are already en route - some further down the road than others - to achieve this goal. Illumina spin-out Grail is one of these companies and while it is not alone, in a field where size matters, it may have an advantage. This article delves deeper into how these different technologies work and when they could reach the market.