Deal Snapshot: Lilly bets $135m on biotech’s preclinical SARM1 inhibitor program, seeing potential in peripheral neuropathy and possibly some bigger targets in neurology like MS and ALS.

UCB gets $120m up front from Roche for option rights to UCB0107 and retains full rights to the drug in progressive supranuclear palsy.

In tandem with Roivant, Cincinnati Children’s launches spinout Aruvant focused on hematologic disorders and separately teams with BridgeBio on genetic disease therapies. Roivant spinout Axovant licenses gene therapy candidates from University of Massachusetts.

Fortress Biotech’s subsidiary will add the lentiviral gene therapy now in pair of Phase I/II trials to its pipeline. RXi partners with Karolinska to advance its self-delivering RNAi technology, while Avalon enlists Weill Cornell to enhance its CAR-T capabilities.