The UK has added important new capabilities to its COVID-19 monitoring and control effort and those running it promise a “world class system” by late summer.

The UK has an “excellent but small diagnostics industry,” so it needs further testing support from related life science industries to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. One of the outcomes of this could be the creation of new big diagnostics industry players.

While it wants to keep other programs for diseases with larger patient populations in house, MeiraGTx believes J&J offers the global reach to expedite its program in inherited retinal diseases, including three clinical candidates.

Once expected to be absorbed by Sanofi, US biotech Warp Drive Bio now will become part of California’s Revolution Medicines in a stock transaction. Sosei elects against its option to acquire MiNA Therapeutics; MeiraGTX follows its June IPO with takeout of Vector Neurosciences. Other recent mergers and acquisitions...