Only six of the 13 US initial public offerings in 2019 by biopharmaceutical companies have provided a positive return as of 1 May, which may be why the pace of IPOs has been cut almost in half compared with 2018, when 67 drug developers went public.
IPO Update: Pace Of US Offerings Slows As 13 Biopharmas Go Public In 2019
With about three IPOs per month compared with a pace of nearly six per month in 2018, drug developers have raised $1.55bn with US offerings this year – though returns have been mixed.

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CEO Kris Elverum told Scrip about the start-up’s platform for editing RNA to correct genetic variants that cause harm and to reproduce healthy variants as a means of treating disease.
The four-year-old firm said it plans to advance programs toward the clinic from the funding round, which comes just over a year after signing two major pharma partnerships.
Private Company Edition: The latest group of drug developers to announce venture capital financings is remarkable for its geographic diversity, from Character Biosciences’ $93m series B round in the US to Augustine’s $85m series B in Belgium to a $29.2m series C for Aculys in Japan.
Kyoto-based venture moves HQ to California to expand R&D and business outreach for its regulatory T-cell technology, as it raises around $46m in public and private funding.
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The firm has lofty ambitions for the aldosterone synthase inhibitor to treat hypertension and kidney disease.
Supply chain disruption fears at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic caused drug over-ordering. Imminent tariffs on drugs may have had a similar effect on pharma sales in Q1 earnings season.
Stock prices plummeted, particularly for vaccine makers and cell and gene therapy developers, after the US FDA’s top biologics overseer resigned over vaccine misinformation concerns.