Three IPOs, Three SPAC Mergers, But One Company Opted Out

Six biopharmaceutical companies traveled down a path toward the US stock market during the first week of May, but half took the initial public offering route and the other half decided to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC). A seventh company, Gyroscope Therapeutics plc, was driving toward an IPO earlier in the week, but on 7 May it stalled out.

London-based gene therapy firm Gyroscope would have had the largest first-time offering of the week at its proposed terms of...