Week of May 16, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Markets Finish the Week Up: The three major US indices finished the week with gains between ~3-7% spurred by a US-China trade deal and significant investments into AI

• Drug Pricing EO Sets 30-Day Clock: President Trump signed an executive order aiming to reduce prescription drug prices by tying US prices to the lowest prices paid by other developed nations – a “most favored nation” approach

  o    Pharma faces 30 days to address the executive order or face potential regulatory actions

  o    Implementation faces potential legal challenges and industry pushback

• GSK’s $2B Bet on MASH: GSK will hand over $1.2B upfront and $800.0M in milestones for Boston Pharmaceuticals’ efimosfermin asset, which is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 trial in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)

Markets Overview

• The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow finished the week up 5.3%, 7.2%, and 3.4% thanks to another trade deal and Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) strong performance

  • The S&P 500 had its second-best week of the year

  • Investors reacted positively to a 90-day agreement to reduce tariffs by 115% between the US and China

  • Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) ended the week up 11.6% due to big investments from Saudi Arabia and a loosening of US chip curbs

Despite President Trump’s “most favored nation” executive order, healthcare indices ended the week with gains as analyst sentiment was that the order was “better than feared”, plus China-related tariff deal uplifts

Notable changes in share price:

• UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH): Shares plummeted 23.4% to finish the week due to outgoing CEO Andrew Witty’s unexpected resignation and news that the Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into the healthcare provider’s Medicare Advantage billing practices

• Biohaven (NYSE: BHVN): Stock price fell 22.0% based on news that the FDA would be delaying the PDUFA data for its neurodegenerative therapy troriluzole and that an advisory committee meeting will be required to review the drug

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

No companies filed for initial public offerings (IPOs) last week:

• 26 companies in total remain in the queue, of which ~80% intend to raise less than $30.0M in proceeds

• Of these, ten companies filed between Q4 2024 and today

• Year-to-date, companies that have gone public in 2025 have delivered an average return of -4.4% and a median return of -15.5%
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

Follow-On Offering Markets:

There were seven follow-on offerings last week totaling ~$702.3M, with ~80% of deal value coming from two financings:

• Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ: AURA) raised ~$57.5M to support advancement of its virus-like drug conjugate (VDC) platform, including the continued development of AU-011 for choroidal melanoma

• Waystar Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WAY) raised ~$484.4M to fuel growth of its cloud-based healthcare payments platform, aimed at streamlining financial operations across providers and payers
  
  
  

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were four PIPEs/RDOs the past week totaling $36.6M in proceeds

   

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