IPO
Cancer-focused Eikon Therapeutics is seeking $273.5 million in its bid to trade on the Nasdaq, while hair growth specialist Veradermics is looking for $181.1 million in its foray onto the New York Stock Exchange.
The obesity market and Most Favored Nation drug pricing were among the topics de jour at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last week, while smaller biotechs sought to assure investors that their regulatory ducks are in a row; Novo Nordisk’s oral obesity pill got off to a hot start while the FDA delayed a decision on Eli Lilly’s investigational offering; and SpyGlass Pharma and AgomAb Therapeutics join the 2026 IPO club.
Two more biopharma companies—the hair-growth specialist Veradermics and cancer-focused Eikon Therapeutics—have announced their IPOs this year. Meanwhile, Aktis Oncology began trading publicly earlier this month.
Heightened diligence standards and longer decision timelines for early-stage startups slowed venture activity last year, J.P. Morgan found in a report published ahead of the bank’s annual healthcare conference in San Francisco.
Eli Lilly has expressed interest in participating in the IPO, with the regulatory filing revealing the obesity juggernaut’s plans to buy as much as $100 million worth of Aktis shares.
In 2025, made or projected biopharma workforce cuts affected about 42,700 employees, according to BioSpace tallies. BioSpace takes a deep dive into which companies and locations were impacted and speaks to experts about what to expect ahead—and why.
After a strong open to the year, the public markets suffered a six-month drought that led to biotech’s tightest IPO window in years.
While the TrumpRx deals only cover Lilly and Novo for now, the agreements are good for any cardiometabolic biotechs waiting in the wings, according to a new 2026 preview report from PitchBook.
With the shutdown ongoing, Evommune plans to close its IPO on Nov. 5 via a Securities Act clause that allows registrations to come into effect after a certain window has passed.
M&A is back, the S&P XBI is rising again, a biotech pulled off an IPO and positive data is pulling in investors again. This may just be the industry’s new normal.
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