Week of January 2, 2026

The Week at a Glance:

• US Military Action in Venezuela Prompts Market Shifts: The US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend has become a primary focus for markets. While investors are largely downplaying long-term economic fallout, the event has triggered significant risk-based speculation

• Year-in-Review for Healthcare Markets: The NBI ended the year up 31.6%, total M&A proceeds reached $220B, follow-on offerings totaled $26B, and venture financings hit $19B, with deal volume trending upward into year-end

• 2025 Marked a Strong Year for Biotech: In 2025, biotech had the most $1B+ M&A deals in the past 20 years, a single week of follow-on offerings totaling $4.1B, and 24 life sciences funds raising $13B+, all of which bolsters optimism surrounding a strong start to 2026

• The Macro Environment Continues to Stabilize: The labor market continues to strengthen, with jobless claims falling for a third straight week, down 16,000 for the week ending December 27th versus the prior week; broader implications of these trends may be limited, however, given the uptick in seasonal workers during the holiday season

• Sanofi Furthers Their Vaccine Presence to Close Out a Record Q4 for M&A: Sanofi’s acquisition of Dynavax for $2.2B caps a record-breaking Q4 for biopharma M&A and underscores acquirers’ focus on commercial-stage targets throughout 202

• Meet us in San Francisco: DNB Carnegie | Back Bay will be in San Francisco in early January. If you would like to meet with our strategy and finance teams, contact us

Markets Overview

The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow were down 1.0%, 1.5%, and 0.7% respectively on the week

• Biotech outpaced the major indices in 2025, with the NBI up 31.6% versus the best performing major index, the Nasdaq, being up 20.5%

The NYSE Pharma Index and NBI were down 0.2% and 1.8% respectively

Notable changes in share price:

• Dynavax (NASDAQ: DVAX): Shares rose 37.8% over the past two weeks after the Company announced that Sanofi was to acquire them for $2.2B

• Omeros (NASDAQ: OMER): Shares jumped 72.2% after the Company obtained an FDA approval for their drug treating transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

In 2025, there were 34 IPOs totaling ~$13.2B in deal value, largely driven by Medline’s ~$6B IPO in Q4 2025, compared to 46 IPOs in 2024 with total deal value of ~$10.8B

No companies completed an IPO or filed to publicly list in the last two weeks.

Only one company in the IPO queue is targeting a raise over ~$200M:

12/19/2025
Aktis Oncology:  $212.0 Intended Raised

Nineteen remaining additional companies in the IPO queue are pursuing raises below $40M, with one additional company (MiniMed Group) not yet disclosing its intended raise amount

IPOs that have priced in 2025 have delivered a median gain of 7%, with ~60% of newly public companies trading above their offer price  

Follow-On Offering Markets:

In 2025, there were 325 follow-on equity offerings totaling ~$26.2B in deal value, compared to 298 follow-on equity offerings in 2024 with total deal value of ~$28.9B

There were no follow-on equity offerings in the last two weeks.

PIPE/RDO Markets:

In 2025, there were 200 PIPE/RDOs totaling $7.1B in deal value, compared to 232 PIPE/RDOs totaling $12.6B in 2024

• There was five PIPEs/RDOs last week raising $73.6M

Licensing

In 2025, there were 207 licensing deals with upfronts totaling $17.2B and milestone payments totaling $125.0B, compared to 222 licensing deals with upfronts totaling $13.6B and milestone payments totaling $129.1B in 2024

M & A

In 2025, there were 83 M&A transactions totaling $220.1B in deal value, compared to 85 M&A transactions totaling $114.1B in 2024

Venture Financing

In 2025, there were 254 venture financings totaling $19.4B, compared to 356 financings totaling $23.4B in 2024

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