Week of October 24, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Stocks rise on the hope of an October rate cut: Indices were up ~2% as slowing inflation clears a path for an October rate cut – CPI rose 0.3% from the prior month versus an expected 0.4%

• Clinical-stage IPOs start to pick up: Novo-backed MapLight Therapeutics raised ~$260M in their IPO to fund their lead Phase 2 program in schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s, along with other neurology programs. The deal marks the second clinical-stage IPO in H2 since LB Pharmaceuticals priced in September

  • The overall IPO queue is slim right now with only two companies intending to raise > $100M

• M&A momentum continues to build: Last week Blackstone/TPG acquired Hologic for $18.3B and Novartis acquired Avidity Biosciences for $12.0B. The Novartis deal marks the second largest strategic M&A this year behind J&J’s purchase of Intra-Cellular Therapeutics ($14.6B) and Novartis’ fourth acquisition this year and largest in ten

Markets Overview

The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and the Dow were up 1.9%, 2.3%, and 2.2%, respectively

• The latest CPI report signaled further moderation in inflation, strengthening confidence in a potential October rate cut and driving gains across major equity indices

The NYSE Pharma Index was up 0.4%, while the NBI was flat on the week

Notable changes in share price:

• Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL): Shares surged 95.6% after the Company announced that the FDA had accepted its BLA resubmission, signaling the potential for a reversal in the regulatory decision on its lead asset, RP1, in advanced melanoma

• Ventyx Biosciences (NASDAQ: VTYX): Shares rose 45.0% after the Company announced positive results from their Phase 2 study in patients with obesity and cardiovascular risk factors

• Inhibrx Biosciences (NASDAQ: INBX): Shares were up 53.8% after the Company reported positive results from its registrational trial in chondrosarcoma, a rare bone cancer with no approved therapies

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

• One company completed an IPO last week:

  • MapLight Therapeutics raised ~$258.9M in capital to advance ML-007C-MA, a fixed-dose combination of an M1/M4 muscarinic agonist (ML-007) co-formulated with a peripherally acting anticholinergic, into Phase 2 clinical trials for schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease psychosis

• No companies filed an S-1 last week 

• Of 21 companies in the queue, only two intend to raise at least $100.0M in proceeds 

• IPOs that have priced this year have delivered a median gain of 23.2%, with ~60% of newly public companies trading above their offer price 

Follow-On Offering Markets:

Follow-on activity continues to build with eight offerings last week totaling $1,148.6M, including: 

• Viridian Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VRDN) raised $251.4M to support commercial launch activities for veligrotug and VRDN-003 in thyroid eye disease and advancement of next-generation FcRn inhibitor programs (VRDN-006 and VRDN-008)

• RAPT Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RAPT) raised $250.0M to advance RPT904 in food allergy and chronic spontaneous urticaria, support tivumecirnon (FLX475) in oncology and other pipeline initiatives

• Disc Medicine (NASDAQ: IRON) raised $250.0M (including $25M from selling stockholder) to support commercial preparation activities of bitopertin for erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) and X-linked protoporphyria (XLP) and fund research and clinical development of additional product candidates

• Tango Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TNGX) raised $210.0M to fund development of its PRMT5 inhibitor portfolio, including vopimetostat and TNG456 for MTAP-deleted pancreatic and lung cancers

• X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR) raised $135.0M to fund its Phase 3 studies for mavorixafor, a CXC chemokine receptor 4 antagonist, in various chronic neutropenic disorders

• Owlet (NYSE: OWLT) raised $30.0M to support continued commercialization and research and development of its connected nursery and digital parenting platform, including Dream Sock, Dream Sight, and Owlet360 subscription services

PIPE/RDO Markets:

There were eight PIPE/RDO deals last week raising an aggregate $719.8M, including:

• Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT): Raised $500M in a private placement—its executives personally invested about $272M, and Akeso added ~$10M—while the remaining ~$218M came from other biotech-institutional and accredited investors; the proceeds will be used to advance the clinical development of its bispecific antibody ivonescimab

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