Coya Therapeutics, Inc. launched the final biopharmaceutical initial public offering in the US in 2022 on 29 December, raising $15.25m from the sale of 3.05 million shares at $5 each, which brought the year’s total to 22 IPOs – just 20% of the record-breaking 107 drug developer IPOs that launched in 2021. But while several companies sputtered onto the stock market with small offerings, many other drug developers opted to stay private a while longer, waiting for better market conditions.
Last year was expected to be a more muted year for IPOs as investor sentiment soured regarding biopharma investments – and it delivered. (Also see "IPO Outlook: 2021 Saw Record Numbers But Poor Returns; 2022 Looks Muted" - Scrip, 7 January, 2022.) New IPOs trickled onto the US stock market last year with just four in the final quarter of 2022, including Coya’s offering, Prime Medicine, Inc.’s $175m launch in October and Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc.’s $99.4m IPO in November