With Mod­er­na and BioN­Tech of­fer­ing a mod­el — in the US and Eu­rope, re­spec­tive­ly — for how mR­NA biotechs can en­joy a me­te­oric rise to prof­it and fame with just one suc­cess­ful Covid-19 vac­cine, a Chi­nese play­er is ready to put it­self on the map.

Abo­gen, which set a record just three months ago with a $720 mil­lion Se­ries C, has now raised an­oth­er $300 mil­lion as it pre­pares to file its vac­cine can­di­date for au­tho­riza­tion. Part­nered with Wal­vax and Chi­na’s mil­i­tary, ABO-028M first en­tered clin­i­cal test­ing in the sum­mer of 2020 and is now in Phase III tri­als in Mex­i­co, In­done­sia and Nepal.

The com­pa­ny has kept it­self large­ly se­cre­tive since be­ing found­ed in Jan­u­ary 2019 — its web­site is near­ly en­tire­ly blank, save for an email ad­dress and a two-sen­tence de­scrip­tion of the com­pa­ny. But one key dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing fac­tor ap­pears to be greater sta­bil­i­ty of its mR­NA vac­cine at warm tem­per­a­tures.

Soft­Bank Vi­sion Fund and 5Y Cap­i­tal co-led the new raise, which is be­ing brand­ed a Se­ries C+, and oth­er in­vestors in­clude Chimera Abu Dhabi, For­tune Ocean and Mi­rae As­set Fi­nan­cial Group.

As BioN­Tech’s jab, part­nered with Fo­s­un on de­vel­op­ment and dis­tri­b­u­tion, re­mains in lim­bo in Chi­na, pub­lic health of­fi­cials and reg­u­la­to­ry au­thor­i­ties have been talk­ing up the prospects of a rapid ap­proval for a do­mes­tic shot.

In an ef­fort to speed up the an­tic­i­pat­ed roll­out, Abo­gen and Wal­vax said on Mon­day they will en­list con­tract man­u­fac­tur­er Gen­Script Pro­Bio to pro­duce the plas­mids that will go in­to their com­mer­cial batch­es.

“The pan­dem­ic is still rag­ing,” said Bri­an Min, CEO of Gen­Script Pro­Bio. “Abo­gen Bio­sciences had launched the project since the very be­gin­ning of the out­break of COVID-19.”

Following the Supreme Court’s historic decision on Friday to overturn Americans’ constitutional right to an abortion after almost 50 years, Attorney General Merrick Garland sought to somewhat reassure women that states will not be able to ban the prescription drug sometimes used for abortions.

Following the decision, the New England Journal of Medicine also published an editorial strongly condemning the reversal, saying it “serves American families poorly, putting their health, safety, finances, and futures at risk.”

Despite whispers of a busy year for M&A, deal activity in the pharma space is actually down 30% on a semi-annualized basis, according to PwC’s latest report on deal activity. But don’t rule out larger deals in the second half of the year, the consultants said.

PwC pharmaceutical and life sciences consulting solutions leader Glenn Hunzinger expects to see Big Pharma companies picking up earlier stage companies to try and fill pipeline gaps ahead of a slew of big patent cliffs. Though a bear market continues to maul the biotech sector, Hunzinger said recent deals indicate that pharma companies are still paying above current trading prices.

The story of Amryt Pharma’s candidate for the genetic skin condition epidermolysis bullosa, or EB, will soon enter another chapter.

After the Irish drugmaker’s candidate, dubbed Oleogel-S10 and marketed as Filsuvez, was handed a CRL earlier this year, the company announced in a press release that it plans to submit a formal dispute resolution request for the company’s NDA for Oleogel-S10.

After attacks from activist investors and disappointing returns on share prices, Radius Health has now agreed to new ownership, a direction resulting in leaving the Nasdaq.

Radius Health, a biotech out of Massachusetts with one approved product in its arsenal, announced Thursday morning that it agreed to be acquired by two VC firms: Gurnet Point Capital and Patient Square Capital. The deal, worth around $890 million, will include debt assumption and the payout of $1 CVR per share for investors. And on top of that, OrbiMed is providing debt financing.

The first in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing program has some new durability data showing sustained reduction of a toxic protein in ATTR amyloidosis at all four dose levels in a small 15-patient study.

Intellia Therapeutics presented the much-anticipated data for its Regeneron-collaborated NTLA-2001 Friday morning, adding to the initial Phase I results it first delivered almost a year ago to the day.