Week of July 31, 2026

The Week at a Glance:

• Fed Holds Rates Steady Amid Hawkish Dissent: The Fed left rates unchanged, although three officials favored a 25-basis-point increase, with continued interest rate uncertainty placing valuation pressure on long duration assets

• J&J Makes a Big Bet on In Vivo CAR-T: J&J agreed to pay $785M upfront and up to $140M in milestones for an option to acquire Flagship Pioneering-backed Sail Biomedicines for up to $2.6B, underscoring growing strategic interest in in vivo CAR-T as a next-generation cell therapy modality

• Argenx Pays $2.2B For a Differentiated Immunology Asset: Argenx agreed to acquire Forte Biosciences for $2.2B, adding an anti-CD122 antibody FB102 to their portfolio and underscoring the breadth of buyers involved in large acquisitions beyond big pharma

   

Markets Overview

The S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow were up 1.0%, 1.8% and 0.5%, respectively, over the last week

• Despite hawkish signals from the Fed and growing scrutiny of AI capital spending, strong earnings from select mega-cap technology companies helped support investor sentiment during the week

The NYSE Pharma and NBI were down 2.0% and 0.9%, respectively, last week

Notable changes in share price:

• Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL): Shares surged 107.0% after an FDA advisory committee voted 10–3 that the efficacy results for RP1 plus nivolumab in advanced melanoma were evaluable and clinically meaningful, materially increasing expectations for approval following FDA action date

• MapLight (NASDAQ: MPLT): Shares fell 64.4% after the Company reported mixed Phase 2 ZEPHYR results in schizophrenia. Although the twice-daily dose met the primary endpoint, its modest efficacy and the failure of the once-daily dose to achieve statistical significance raised concerns regarding competitiveness versus Cobenfy

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO

IPO Market Remains Open for Late-Stage, Near-Commercial Assets

There was one biotech IPO that priced last week:

• Apnimed (NASDAQ: APMD) priced an upsized offering, raising $192M to support clear commercialization paths of AD109, a once-nightly oral therapy for obstructive sleep apnea that has completed two Phase 3 trials and is under FDA review

IPOs priced in 2025 and 2026 have generated a median and average return of 13.6% and 27.6% YTD, respectively

After-Market Performance by Stage

• Clinical-stage after-market performance: 45.1% (average), 14.2% (median)

• Commercial-stage after-market performance: 10.1% (average), 12.9% (median)

After-Market Performance by Sector

• Biopharma: 45.1% (average), 14.2% (median)

• MedTech: 5.1% (average), (5.6%) (median)

  
  

Follow On

There was one follow-on offering totaling approximately $25M this week

PIPE/RDO

PIPE financing was led by Caldera Therapeutics and Processa, as investors backed assets with multiple upcoming clinical milestones

There were five PIPEs / RDOs announced last week, representing aggregate proceeds of $659.7M, including:

• Processa raised $200M through a private placement backed by Bain Capital Life Sciences, Janus Henderson, RA Capital Management, and other healthcare investors, with proceeds expected to advance Vidya's lead BTK inhibitor VT-7208 through multiple Phase 2 clinical milestones and support operations into 2029

• Caldera Therapeutics secured $278M through a concurrent private placement backed by Bain Capital Life Sciences, TCGX, Atlas Venture, venBio Partners, and other institutional investors, with proceeds expected to advance CLD-423 through Phase 2 development in inflammatory bowel disease and support operations into 2029

• LB Pharmaceuticals raised $150M through a private placement with institutional investors, with proceeds expected to expand development of LB-102 into additional neuropsychiatric indications, including schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease agitation/psychosis

Licensing

Immunology led licensing activity with J&J’s staged Sail transaction and Vertex’s multispecific T-cell engager collaboration with AbCellera, and regional commercialization agreements accounted for much of the remaining disclosed deal value

M&A

Argenx's $2.2B acquisition of Forte Biosciences and the Synlogic–Caldera reverse merger highlights continued demand for differentiated autoimmune assets, as companies expand immunology pipelines through clinically validated therapies

Venture Financing

Investors continued backing advanced development, defined regulatory platforms specialist therapeutic platforms, led by Ratio Therapeutics' radiopharmaceutical pipeline and Claris Biotherapeutics' late-stage ophthalmology program