On Excess Compensation Earned by Underwriters in Firm Commitment Initial Public Offerings of Common Stock: An Empirical Analysis

This paper examines compensation for the underwriting activity in firm commitment initial public offerings (IPOs) of common stock in the U.S. When compensation for origination, management and marketing efforts are excluded from total underwriter compensation, we find that the portion of the total compensation assigned for the underwriting activity itself exceeds theoretical compensation only for issues that sell out very quickly. We interpret this finding as empirical evidence supporting the incentive for underwriters to underprice IPOs. Finally, we find excess compensation to underwriters is positively related to the riskiness of the IPO and negatively related to the degree of competition among investment bankers and the size of the IPO

¹⁹F NMR-Guided Design of Glycomimetic Langerin Ligands

C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) play a pivotal role in pathogen defense and immune homeostasis. Langerin, a CLR predominantly expressed on Langerhans cells, represents a potential target receptor for the development of anti-infectives or immunomodulatory therapies. As mammalian carbohydrate binding sites typically display high solvent exposure and hydrophilicity, the recognition of natural monosaccharide ligands is characterized by low affinities. Consequently, glycomimetic ligand design poses challenges that extend to the development of suitable assays. Here, we report the first application of ¹⁹F R₂-filtered NMR to address these challenges for a CLR, i.e., Langerin. The homogeneous, monovalent assay was essential to evaluating the <i>in silico</i> design of 2-deoxy-2-carboxamido-α-mannoside analogs and enabled the implementation of a fragment screening against the carbohydrate binding site. With the identification of both potent monosaccharide analogs and fragment hits, this study represents an important advancement toward the design of glycomimetic Langerin ligands and highlights the importance of assay development for other CLRs