Finance Watch: Biopharma Public Offerings Fell In Q4, But Activity Is Booming In Q1

Biomedtracker Data Show Big Year-End Drop In 2024

Public Company Edition: Fourth quarter 2023 fundraising fell 25.1% from Q4 2022, including a 24.2% drop in follow-on dollars, but recent activity has been robust, including $300m and $350m offerings by 4DMT and Autolus. Also, BMS sold $13bn in notes to fund Karuna and RayzeBio deals.

Finance Watch Public Company — • Source: Alamy

Biomedtracker’s latest report on biopharmaceutical company fundraising shows a 25.1% decline in year-over-year dollars raised, from $17.5bn in the fourth quarter of 2022 to $13.1bn in Q4 of 2023. Follow-on public offerings (FOPOs) had a similar Q4 decline of 24.2% from $6.09bn to $4.61bn, while initial public offering dollars nearly doubled from $343m to $639m despite the number of global IPOs declining from eight in Q4 2022 to five in Q4 2023.

However, the slowdown in FOPOs and IPOs in the fourth quarter appears to be reversing in the first quarter of...