Week of August 22, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Indices Finish Flat: The three major indices finished with an average minor gain of 0.4% thanks to a late rally on Friday triggered by Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole

• In vivo CAR T Continues to Grab Headlines: Kite entered into an agreement to acquire Interius BioTherapeutics for $350M upfront, marking the third major in vivo CAR T acquisition deal YTD

Markets Overview

• The S&P 500 gained 0.3% and the Dow rose 1.5%, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.6% on the week

  • Markets rallied late after Fed Chair Powell’s comments at Jackson Hole hinted at a likely September rate cut, pushing major indices up nearly 2% by Friday’s close

The NYSE Pharma Index rose 1.8% and the NBI gained 0.3% on the week, with most of the week’s upside coming after Powell’s Friday comments

Notable changes in share price:

• Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX): Shares tumbled ~40% after Phase 2 data on its oral GLP-1/GIP agonist VK2735 showed 12.2% weight loss at the top dose, but had 38% of patients discontinuing, more than double placebo

• Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRPT): Shares slipped ~7% after refinancing ~$700M of 1.25% 2027 convertible notes. The deal, exchanging existing 2027 notes for 4.9% of 2030 notes, $123M cash, and 6.7M shares, raised investor concerns over higher-cost debt and dilution

• Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RCKT): Shares climbed ~20% after the FDA lifted the Phase 2 clinical hold on its RP-A501 gene therapy for Danon disease, less than three months after it was paused due to a patient death

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

No companies completed IPOs last week.

One company filed an S-1 last week:

• LB Pharmaceuticals intends to raise ~$100.0M in capital to advance LB-102, an oral small molecule antipsychotic therapy, into Phase 3 clinical trials for acute schizophrenia and Phase 2 for bipolar depression

19 companies in total remain in the queue, of which only one intends to raise more than $30.0M in proceeds

Year-to-date, companies that have gone public in 2025 have had a median gain of 3.0%

Follow-On Offering Markets:

There were four completed follow-on equity offerings last week totaling $102.7M, including:

• iBio, Inc (NASDAQ: IBIO) raised $50.0M to advance its preclinical cardiometabolic programs, including lead asset IBIO-610, a myostatin and activin A bispecific, into clinical development

• Invivyd, Inc (NASDAQ: IVVD) raised $57.5M to advance VYD2311, a monoclonal antibody for COVID-19, and to expand R&D efforts in new indications, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles, and long COVID

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were four PIPEs/RDOs last week totaling $58.0M, all of which were equal to or less than $25.0M

Licensing

M & A

Venture Financing

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