Incyte will pay $750m to acquire privately held Escient and its first-in-class oral antagonists of Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors X2 and X4.

In a partnership worth $380m, BMS has reserved clinical and commercial capacity with Cellares, a company whose $255m series C round it participated in last year.

Biotech entrepreneurs tend to be an optimistic group, and there were many pockets of hope for 2024. However, the consensus remains that depressed valuations and paucity of fresh funds will continue to pose a challenge for the sector, and companies will need to prioritize carefully and work even harder to demonstrate and create value.

Plus deals involving Biocytogen/Radiance, Maruho/AOBiome, LGChem/Rhythm, IASO/Umoja, JW Therapeutics/2seventy and 13 other transactions.