The sector’s IPO tally has surpassed each of the past four years, with four October debuts adding momentum—but activity still remains well below the COVID-19 boom that saw nearly 100 public debuts in 2021.
Biotech’s IPO rebound isn’t losing steam, with 31 companies going public so far this year and four more lining up to follow.
This total greatly exceeds 2025’s eight total IPOs, according to BioSpace’s historical data, and also tops the slightly stronger years that come before. The industry saw 19, 13 and 17 IPOs in 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
This year’s IPO class is still far smaller than the nearly 100 public debuts recorded in 2021, when pandemic-driven investment poured into the sector.
October has ushered in four biotech IPOs thus far. Immunoregulatory medicine developer TRexBio, hypertension-focused Retension Pharmaceuticals, RNAi biotech City Therapeutics and AI-fueled Iambic Therapeutics all started trading this month.
In addition, four other biotechs have recently filed to follow in their footsteps. Lycia Therapeutics is hoping to raise $227.8 million to advance its protein degrader pipeline, while Aspen Neuroscience plans to hit the market to fund development of its stem cell therapy sasineprocel for Parkinson’s disease. Meanwhile, Bambusa Therapeutics has also mapped out IPO plans to push forward its immunology and inflammation bispecific antibodies. And most recently, NodThera, now rebranded as Rezera, outlined a public debut to advance its NLRP3 inhibitor ruvonoflast into a Phase 3 study for peripheral artery disease.
Breaking down 2026’s IPOs, the first quarter leads the way, with 11 public debuts occurring—five of which happened outside of the U.S. The rest of the year has seen only U.S. debuts, with seven reported in the second quarter and nine in the third.
By financing size, Parabilis Medicines’ $670 million debut has been the largest of not only this year, but in biotech’s IPO history. That was preceded by Kailera Therapeutics’ $625 million IPO—another record-setting debut at the time. The third largest debut of 2026 came in September, when ADARx Pharmaceuticals raised $446.3 million.
