Week of July 3, 2026

The Week at a Glance:

• Ipsen Strikes Twice: Ipsen announced deals to acquire Memo Therapeutics and Kartos Therapeutics for up to ~$800M and $1.75B, respectively, adding rare disease and oncology assets while management signaled continued appetite for dealmaking

• Abivax Shakes off Safety Concerns: Abivax raised $920M after updated Phase 3 maintenance data for obefazimod in ulcerative colitis helped address prior malignancy concerns

• Another S-1 Filed as the IPO Window Remains Open: Scribe Therapeutics filed its S-1 last week, with its offering expected to test investor appetite for early-stage assets, as Scribe’s lead asset is currently in Phase 1

• FDA Turnover and Uncertainty Persists: Vijay Kumar, acting director of FDA CBER’s Office of Therapeutic Products, is stepping down from the leadership role after roughly one year, adding to recent turnover within the agency

   

Markets Overview

With macroeconomic concerns slightly easing, investors were willing to rotate back into biotech equities, with the NBI outperforming major indices

The S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq were up 1.8%, 2.1%, and 2.0%, respectively, over the last week

• Equities rebounded from last week’s weak performance, with major indices moving higher as softer-than-expected payroll data eased concerns around further Fed tightening and improved broader market sentiment

The NYSE Pharma and NBI were up 2.0% and 4.4%, respectively, last week

Notable changes in share price:

• Abivax (NASDAQ: ABVX): Shares rose 55.1% after the Company reported additional Phase 3 ABTECT maintenance data for obefazimod in ulcerative colitis, helping address prior malignancy concerns by showing cancer incidence rates consistent with expected UC background rates

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO

One S-1 was filed last week:

• Scribe Therapeutics filed an S-1, seeking to raise $75M in its IPO to advance its in vivo CRISPR-based cardiometabolic pipeline, including STX-1150 for PCSK9-mediated LDL-C lowering, STX-1200 for Lp(a) reduction, and STX-1400 for triglyceride lowering

IPOs priced in 2025 and 2026 have generated a median and average return of 22.0% and 39.8% YTD, respectively

After-Market Performance by Stage

• Clinical-stage after-market performance: 60.7% (average), 28.6% (median)

• Commercial-stage after-market performance: 18.8% (average), 21.1% (median)

After-Market Performance by Sector

• Biopharma: 60.7% (average), 28.6% (median)

• MedTech: 12.8% (average), 8.3% (median)
  
  

Follow On

Follow-on activity rewarded companies delivering clinical de-risking events, with financings being led by Abivax, as updated Phase 3 maintenance data clarified the previously reported safety signal and renewed investor confidence

• Additional financing activity was concentrated in other development-stage stories, including Neurogene’s NGN-401 gene therapy program in Rett syndrome and Nuvectis’ pipeline across immune complement-related diseases and oncology

There were four follow-on equity offerings totaling approximately $1.16B this week

• Abivax SA (NASDAQ: ABVX) completed a $920M public offering to support commercialization expenses for obefazimod, its lead drug candidate in ulcerative colitis, as well as clinical R&D expenses primarily related to ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease and general corporate purposes

• Neurogene Inc. (NASDAQ: NGNE) completed a $135.1M public offering to fund the ongoing clinical development of NGN-401, a one-time investigational gene therapy for Rett syndrome, pre-commercial activities for NGN-401, and working capital and general corporate purposes

• Nuvectis Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVCT) priced a $100M underwritten public offering to advance its development programs, including NXP100 for IgA nephropathy, NXP200 for solid tumors, and NXP900 for biliary tract cancer, NSCLC, renal cell cancer, mesothelioma and other solid tumors, as well as general corporate purposes
  

PIPE/RDO Markets:

A $1B structured financing demonstrates that non-dilutive and hybrid capital solutions remain readily available for commercial-stage healthcare companies with strong assets

There were seven PIPEs / RDOs last week raising an aggregate of $1.1B

• BridgeBio Pharma raised up to $1B through a convertible preferred equity sale led by Sixth Street and HealthCare Royalty, with proceeds expected to strengthen the balance sheet and support the continued launch of Attruby and three additional potential US product launches

• Pyxis Oncology raised $50M in upfront gross proceeds through a private placement, with up to ~$114M available if accompanying warrants are exercised, with proceeds expected to advance MICVO through key clinical milestones and extend cash runway into Q2 2027

Licensing

AI and next-generation platforms continued to drive licensing activity last week, consistent with recent dealmaking trends

M&A

Ipsen led M&A activity with agreements to acquire two private biotechs, Kartos Therapeutics and Memo Therapeutics, expanding its oncology and rare disease portfolios, while management signaled continued appetite for dealmaking

Venture Financing

VC investment was led by targeted protein degraders, a modality that continues to attract significant investor attention, and de-risked late-stage assets such as Celea Therapeutics’ Phase 3 IPF asset