Amid a case of re-infection of a vaccinated healthcare worker in western China’s Xi’an city, and ongoing debate over domestic vaccines' efficacy, increasing attention is being paid in China to raising inoculation rates for COVID-19 and moving towards herd immunity.

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.