Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. priced its IPO at a level that, with anticipated gross proceeds of $436.4 million, would make it 2021’s second largest biopharma IPO and the eighth largest ever. Salt Lake City-based Recursion’s shares (NASDAQ:RXRX) were priced at $18 each when the market opened and by midday were trading about 77% higher. The company, which is advancing lead programs in rare disease and oncology, said it plans to use net proceeds to help fund R&D and for designing and conducting clinical trials. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan are lead book-running managers. Other newly launched IPOs include Biomea Fusion Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., with shares (NASDAQ:BMEA) trading about 9% higher at midday, and Akoya Biosciences Inc., of Marlborough, Mass. whose shares (NASDAQ:AKYA) were about 27% higher.

Precision Biosciences reacquires CAR T programs from Servier

A collection of CAR T cell programs originally licensed by Precision Biosciences Inc. to Baxalta Inc. in a $1.6 billion deal are, after handoffs to Shire and Servier, back where they began. Precision said April 15 it is reacquiring all rights to the programs, including two clinical-stage CD19-targeting allogeneic CAR T candidates, from Servier for $1.25 million in cash and the waiver of earned, but as-yet unpaid, milestones totaling $18.75 million. Patrick Therasse, deputy head of R&D oncology at Servier said the move was due to a "strategic decision to refocus our R&D activities." Shares of Precision (NASDAQ:DTIL) fell 4.5% by midday.

Looming tax shake-up to force Ireland onto level playing pitch

DUBLIN – The Biden administration’s proposals on global corporation tax reform have set alarm bells ringing across the Irish government, as officials digest the possible implications of the plan for Ireland's foreign direct investment (FDI) model of economic development. Although the country’s authorities have been resigned for some time to an international tax reform process led by the Paris-based intergovernmental body the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which will curb Ireland’s ability to undercut other jurisdictions, President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have now given considerable impetus to this broad policy initiative. Ireland’s days as a place to combine drug manufacturing with tax avoidance are numbered – and those focused on the former activity are now gearing up to ensure that the country’s biopharma sector will continue to thrive on its own merits.

Phathom goes deeper into GERD; sea change ahead for PPIs?

With phase III data due from Phathom Pharmaceuticals Inc. in the near term, investor eyes are turning to the ways that lead compound vonoprazan, a potassium-competitive acid blocker, might distinguish itself from proton pump inhibitors in gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Rising approvals and regulatory news in March; NMEs for ADHD and MS

FDA approvals for biopharma products have reached their highest point in six years for a first quarter, while regulatory data is up a full 45% over last year. A total of 265 regulatory items were tracked by BioWorld in March 2021, representing the highest monthly volume, not only for this year, but for last year as well. The activity is up from 193 in February and 223 in January, but it is much more in line with the 263 items recorded in December, which was the busiest month of 2020. For the entire first quarter, there were 681 global regulatory items of news, compared with 469 during the same timeframe of 2020.

Also in the news

Amgen, Astrazeneca, Bausch, Biogen, Bold, Brooklyn, Celularity, Chipscreen, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gigagen, Glaxosmithkline, Horizon, Implicit, Kintor, Lilly, Oncopeptides, Portage, Qilu, Quantum Leap, Relay, Roche, Synlogic, TG, Vir, Zogenix