BioSpace Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong reflects on the year that was, and what’s to come in 2025.
I’m a classic journalist. I don’t like the tables being turned on me. On the odd occasion when this happens, I get this deer in the headlights look while my mind reels.
So that’s exactly what happened when Zevra Therapeutics CEO Neil McFarlane asked me to recall the chatter heading into the 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this time last year, and whether any of that came to fruition.
Luckily, from sheer repetition, I knew the answer: IPOs. Everything was IPOs all the time. Fewer than two dozen biotechs went public in 2023, continuing the dramatic decline following the pandemic’s IPO boom. Will the window finally open in 2024? If more companies do go public, how will they fare?
Now in December we have our answer: Some companies did go public, but I wouldn’t say the window was open. I wouldn’t even say it was a window. It was more like a handful of biotechs flying over Wall Street without a parachute and choosing to jump anyway.
Indeed, there weren’t many more biotech IPOs in 2024 than in 2023, and the companies that did venture out this year struggled to regain the initial excitement from debut day. There is still a backlog of companies wanting to go public, and investors remain focused on later-stage science. Biotechs that have a candidate in the clinic are king.
The tepid IPO environment was mirrored in M&A activity, which also didn’t really rebound, although there were some outliers. The most talked about deal of the year was Novo Holdings’ massive $16.5 billion manufacturing outlay with Catalent. We end the year with it finally closing.
My favorite buyout of 2024 was Novartis’ acquisition of neuromuscular disease biotech Kate Therapeutics, a late deal, struck just last month, and a relatively modest one—small but mighty. This deal, worth a reported $1.1 billion, shows that early-stage exciting science can still attract big buyers, as Kate’s assets are all still in preclinical development. Novartis’ interest in the company means that biotech is still exciting.
Heading into the 2025 edition of J.P. Morgan, what seems to rise over all else is an understanding that this past year has not moved the biopharma industry out of the extended downturn as predicted. But some amazing things happened. We talked all year about neuroscience (for better or worse) and GLP-1s; radiopharma, cell therapies and antibody-drug conjugates. We saw another Alzheimer’s disease drug approved and a handful of RSV vaccines create a new cutthroat market.
As we move into 2025, I’m ready for some new good news and—maybe, just maybe—one or two storylines that don’t involve weight loss and obesity. I say that with the utmost respect for the scientific breakthrough that GLP-1s represent, of course. Here’s to a 2025 full of many more breakthroughs that can benefit diverse populations of patients.
