Public Company Edition: Mergers with special purpose acquisition corporations may be heating up, but in addition to the Surrozen and Tango SPAC deals Recursion and Biomea launched initial public offerings. Also, Organon sells $5.6bn worth of notes to fund spinout from Merck & Co.

Legend/J&J’s CAR-T cilta-cel and Chi-Med’s surufatinib would follow BeiGene’s Brukinsa, which won FDA approval in November 2019.

More C-Suite level pharma executives are lending their domain expertise to private equity firms, which then use their skills for commercial due diligence on targets or in an operating partner role in portfolio companies once a deal is sealed. PEs are also increasingly opting for control deals, at least in India, with an aim to run the acquired firm professionally thereon.

After backing off of MRK-7110 for hospitalized patients the company’s focus is on the oral antiviral molnupiravir for outpatients – which would be a huge win, but the drug has yet to fully prove itself in the clinic.