2014’s Biotech IPO Class: Strong Starts

As of February 27, there were 15 biotechs from the initial public offering class of 2014 that had more than doubled their values since their debuts. Those stand-outs, led by massive gains by rare disease drug developer Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (up 460% since its February 2014 IPO) [See Deal] and by women’s health-focused Radius Health Inc.[See Deal] (up 433% since its June 2014 IPO), drove the impressive overall performance of the 67 newly public biotechs in the cohort. Overall the average IPO in 2014 was up 52.2% as of February 27 (17.6% median). (Since the beginning of 2014, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index is up about 40%.)

The characteristics and strategies pursued by the 15 companies that had risen 100% or more sit at various points on the innovation spectrum. There are biosimilars companies (Pfenex Inc.,...