Around 25 companies have gone public this year, most of them in the early months. Most have tumbled from their original offer price.
The IPO window cracked open in 2024, just long enough for a couple dozen biotechs to sneak out. What they found on the other side, however, was a slippery slope.
About 25 companies have gone public this year, the majority of them in the early months. And most have tumbled from their original offer price, now hovering around the S&P XBI, which tracks U.S. biotechnology stocks and is commonly used as an overall measure of the sector’s performance.
CG Oncology was the first to take the plunge on January 24, raising $380 million and setting high expectations. This remains the largest IPO of the year and is also one of the best performing. CG opened in January at $29 per share and closed Tuesday afternoon at $33.70, up $16% year to date. The company is developing a bladder-sparing therapy for patients with bladder cancer.
The closest behind CG was fellow oncology biotech Bicara Therapeutics, which went public in September with a $315 million raise. This company, however, has not performed as well on the public markets, down 26% year to date at $19.30 a share at Tuesday’s close, compared to $26.25 on its first day of trading.
Other freshly public biotechs have suffered similar losses. Alto Neuroscience held strong for most of the year after its shares debuted in early February at $22 apiece. In October, however, the clinical failure of major depressive disorder therapy ALTO-100 sent the company crashing down. The shares plummeted from $14.53 to just over $4 overnight, where they’ve stayed.
Metagenomi raised $93.6 million in February and opened at $10.25, facing a rough welcome with an immediate 31% decline. The stock has since fallen 59% year to date. It closed at $4.19 on Tuesday, thanks to a small rally over the weekend with a presentation of preclinical data for a hemophilia A candidate called MGX-001.
The latest company to hit the public markets was Jupiter Neurosciences, which raised just $11 million at an offer price of $4 apiece. Maybe this company, which is developing neuro-inflammation therapies, will buck the trend. It’s only been on the Nasdaq a few days, but Jupiter’s shares have already more than doubled to $9.50 apiece.
