With 62 biopharmaceutical company initial public offerings in the US during the first half of 2021, this year is on track to beat 2020’s record-setting total of 86 drug developer IPOs. If drug developer valuations, which took a hit earlier this year, continue to improve during the second half, 2021 could outpace 2020 before the end of the third quarter, given the current pace of first-time offerings – 31 per quarter versus last year’s pace of 21 IPOs per quarter.
Stock price volatility between February and May hit newly public biopharma companies hard – 35 of the firms that launched IPOs during the first half of 2021 were trading in negative territory as of 1 July. However, the 27 drug developers that started the second half in positive territory kept the average return from turning negative. The IPO class of 2021 delivered an average return of 1
Top Performers, H1 2021
The five companies with the highest returns versus their IPO prices are:
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Verve Therapeutics, Inc. (cardiovascular diseases), 179.7%
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Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AI-based drug discovery), 99.9%
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Graphite Bio, Inc. (gene editing), 66.2%
