Week of August 29, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• The summer wraps up with flat indices: The three major indices finished slightly down as investors wait for the Fed’s September meeting—some question the Fed’s independence following Trump’s comments that he will fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook

• Regulatory uncertainty remains high: Only weeks after being confirmed, Susan Monarez was pushed out of her role as CDC director following her refusal to resign after pressure to change vaccine policy

• Update on the political economy: DNB//Back Bay tracked macroeconomic, regulatory, and healthcare deal making activity over the summer and will publish the next in our series of updates. View our current political economy update here: Vital Signs: A Pulse Check on the Healthcare Market

• NAHC companies to be announced: DNB//Back Bay is proud to bring together compelling mid- and large-cap and pre-IPO Nordic and US healthcare companies and US institutional investors in NYC for the 10th Annual Nordic-American Healthcare Conference (NAHC) this March. We have limited presentation spots remaining. If you would like to be considered or nominate a company to present, please be in touch!

Markets Overview

• The S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq slipped 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.2%, respectively

  • US core PCE stayed stable in July, as investors await the Fed’s September meeting

  • President Trump said he would fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, setting the stage for a major governance and legal decision

The NYSE Pharma Index and NBI declined 0.5% and 1.3%, respectively.

Notable changes in share price include:

• J&J (NYSE: JNJ): Following disappointing Phase 2a data, J&J was down 1.1% after discontinuing the development of nipocalimab in combination with an anti-TNFa for rheumatoid arthritis

• Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MDGL): Shares rose 6.2% after the FDA announced it is considering the use of non-invasive liver measurements as a surrogate endpoint in place of liver biopsies in MASH. Other MASH companies also traded higher on the news: VKTX +4.2%, IVA +29.8%, and ALT +8.5%

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

• Zero companies completed IPOs last week

• Zero companies filed an S-1 last week

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

• For the year-to-date, companies that have gone public in 2025 have had a median gain of 0.2%

Follow-On Offering Markets:

• There were five small follow-on equity offerings last week totaling $19.5M

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were three PIPEs/RDOs last week raising an aggregate $161.2M, including:

  • Shattuck Labs (NASDAQ: STTK) closed a $103.0M RDO led by OrbiMed to fund a Phase 2 trial for their lead asset, SL-325, targeting IBD

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