Week of August 14, 2026

The Week at a Glance:

• Inflation resumed its downward trend: US inflation cooled in July, reducing concerns about broader oil and gas price spillover and further Fed tightening

• Healthcare equity issuance surged across follow-on and PIPEs: Healthcare companies raised nearly $1.4B across eight follow-ons and six PIPE/RDOs, with large financings for Avere, AbCellera, Silence and Replimune demonstrating continued institutional appetite for companies with differentiated assets and identifiable clinical or commercial catalysts

• Jazz agreed to pay up to $1.3B to deepen epilepsy franchise: Jazz agreed to acquire Actio Biosciences for $820M upfront plus up to $500M in milestones, with the deal centered on ABS-1230, a clinical-stage small-molecule inhibitor of the KCNT1 potassium channel for KCNT1+ epilepsy

   

Markets Overview

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.4% and 0.1% respectively, while the Dow was down 0.6% over the last week

• Inflation data continued to trend downward, easing concerns that price pressures could prove more persistent than expected and helping push broader indices higher for the week

The NBI was up 0.3%, the NYSE Pharma Index was down 0.2% over the week

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO

One biotech IPO that was priced last week:

• Vogenx (NASDAQ: VOGX), a Phase 2b metabolic-disease biotech developing mizagliflozin for post-bariatric hypoglycemia and gastroparesis, priced its IPO, raising $81.3M in gross proceeds

IPOs priced in 2025 and 2026 have generated a median and average return of 18.0% and 36.8% YTD, respectively

After-market performance by stage:

• Clinical-stage after-market performance: 47.4% (average), 13.6% (median)

• Commercial-stage after-market performance: 26.1% (average), 22.0% (median)

After-market performance by sector:

• Biopharma: 47.4% (average), 13.6% (median)

• MedTech: 20.6% (average), 12.3% (median)

Follow On

There were eight follow-on offerings totaling approximately $695.7M last week, including:

• Zentalis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ZNTL) priced a $80.5M public offering, with gross proceeds of up to ~$92.6M if the underwriters’ option is exercised in full, to fund clinical and preclinical studies, regulatory filings, manufacturing and companion diagnostic development, pre-commercial activities, and working capital

• Outlook Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OTLK) priced a $55.0M public offering, with gross proceeds of up to ~$63.3M if the underwriters’ option is exercised in full, to support the U.S. commercial launch of LYTENAVA and fund working capital and general corporate purposes

• AbCellera (NASDAQ: ABCL) priced an oversubscribed $200M public offering, to fund continued research, development and clinical advancement of its internal pipeline, including lead clinical program ABCL635, and support working capital and general corporate purposes

• Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL) priced a $150M underwritten offering, to fund the commercial launch of TUDRIQEV, expand TUDRIQEV into additional skin cancer indications, broaden the RP2 clinical development program, and support working capital and general corporate purposes

• Silence Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SLN) priced an upsized $175M public offering, with gross proceeds reaching ~$201.3M following full exercise of the underwriters’ option, to fund continued clinical development of its product candidates and support working capital, capital expenditures, investments and collaborations

PIPE/RDO

There were six PIPEs / RDOs announced last week, representing aggregate proceeds of $669.6M, including:

• Maplight Therapeutics raised $150M in a PIPE to help support the continued development of ML-007C-MA, including funding the ongoing VISTA Phase 2 study in Alzheimer’s disease psychosis as well as the ZEPHYR-2 registrational Phase 3 study in schizophrenia and its associated open-label safety study

• Avere Therapeutics raised $500M in a PIPE to support continued development of Avere’s lead program, AVR-001, a once-weekly oral IL-23 receptor antagonist

Licensing

Strategics continued to prioritize late-stage, de-risked licensing opportunities:

• Licensing activity concentrated around Phase 3 and regulatory-stage assets, highlighting continued buyer willingness to pay for programs offering nearer-term commercial optionality

M&A

Curium continued its M&A push, following its recently announced $8.0B agreement to acquire Lantheus with the acquisition of Abscint, further expanding its radiopharma footprint

Venture Financing

Private financing activity remained robust across biotech, with investors concentrating capital across development stages while continuing to fund AI-enabled discovery platforms and next-generation modalities