RTW Biotech Opportunities (RTW) has invested $5.9m in the series A financing of Yarrow Bioscience, a new clinical-stage company it helped found to develop transformative therapies for autoimmune thyroid diseases. This week Yarrow and fund manager RTW Investments announced a global ex-China licence agreement for Yarrow’s main treatment with Shanghai Scizeng Medical Technology, a subsidiary of Changchun GeneScience Pharmaceutical in China. Yesterday the company entered a merger agreement with Nasdaq-listed VYNE Therapeutics backed by $200m of financing from RTW Investments, OrbiMed Advisors, the manager of Biotech Growth (BIOG), and Janus Henderson Investors, venBio Partners, Logos Capital, LifeSci Venture Partners and Perceptive Advisors.

Nippon Active Value Fund (NAVF), the £429m Japanese smaller companies activist, is selling its biggest holding, a 13% weighting, in Hogy Medical for £62.4m, above its £55.2m valuation at 30 November after the healthcare company agreed to be taken private by Carlyle Group. The shares rose 1.4%, or 3p, to 211p yesterday.

Bellevue Healthcare (BBH) is convening a general meeting of shareholders on 5 January to approve an extension of share buybacks for its zero discount control policy, which raises the question of how much of the company will be left when Columbia Threadneedle takes over as manager. Since the appointment was announced on 30 October, the investment trust’s market value has fallen from £150m to £121m in response to ongoing buybacks that have kept the discount at 5%.

Aquila Energy Efficiency Trust (AEET) has applied to remove the euro quote of its shares given its low liquidity from this morning.