A string of billion dollar deals, many focused on the development of oncology therapeutics, rounded off an extraordinary year.

COVID vaccine news dominates our last monthly round-up of articles from Springer Nature research journals, magazines and supplements of the year. The articles explore how the many vaccines in development are affecting the pharmaceutical sector and what challenges lie ahead for their rollout.

Biopharma Dealmakers’ monthly round-up continues exploring the most significant biopharma deals of the previous month.

Using systems biology and machine learning to design multi-targeted EMM compositions for complex multifactorial diseases

Montreal-based Inversago Pharma is developing a portfolio of peripherally-acting cannabinoid receptor-1 (CB1) inverse agonists, including its lead candidate INV-101, in development for the treatment of the rare genetic disorder Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), NASH and other conditions.

With cutting-edge protein-engineering tools, Codexis designs transformative therapeutics tailored to patient needs.

Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation and other partnership initiatives champion emerging science and help stakeholders realize the potential of their innovations.

Anthos is developing a pioneering phase 2 monoclonal antibody, abelacimab, as an effective anticoagulant that aims to provide treatment by inhibiting Factor XI to avoid severe bleeding.

The CanVirex platform deploys the oncolytic properties of recombinant measles vectors for innovative cancer treatments. In addition it has now provided a novel COVID-19 vaccine candidate that is approaching clinical trials.