Week of June 19, 2026

The Week at a Glance:

• The Fed Holds Rates Steady, but Investors Expect a More Hawkish Stance: Although the Fed left interest rates unchanged, comments from new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh heightened investor concerns about a potential near-term rate hike

• Biotech M&A For the Week Focused on Early-Stage Assets:

  • Eli Lilly Continues to be Aggressive: In its 11th acquisition this year, Eli Lilly announced its acquisition of 4E Therapeutics, which is developing a Phase 1 MNK inhibitor for chronic pain

  • Biogen Makes a Preclinical Bet: Biogen announced its acquisition of RayThera, a preclinical company focused on small molecules for immunology indications, in a deal valued at up to $1B

• Yet Another Biotech IPO: Kardigan, led by former MyoKardia executives, raised $400M in its IPO to support clinical development of its cardiovascular-focused pipeline 

   

Markets Overview

The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow were up 0.9%, 2.4%, and 0.7%, respectively, over the last week

• News that the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding pushed equities higher, offsetting the Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged and investors’ interpretation of the meeting as increasingly hawkish

The NBI was up 1.4%, while the NYSE Pharma Index was down 3.8%

Notable changes in share price:

• uniQure (NASDAQ: QURE): Shares rose 73.6% after uniQure reported that the FDA communicated that the three-year analysis from its Phase 1/2 Huntington’s disease study would be acceptable as the primary basis of a BLA for accelerated approval, reversing the FDA’s prior guidance that an external control was insufficient to provide evidence of effectiveness for AMT-130

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO

Kardigan, Inc. (Nasdaq: KARD) raised $400M in its upsized IPO to advance danicamtiv through Phase 2b/3 development in genetic dilated cardiomyopathy, while supporting its broader precision cardiovascular pipeline, including ataciguat for calcific aortic valve stenosis and tonlamarsen for acute severe hypertension

IPOs priced in 2025 and 2026 have generated a median and average return of 20.5% and 22.9% YTD, respectively

After-Market Performance by Stage

• Clinical-stage after-market performance: 39.9% (average), 28.2% (median)

• Commercial-stage after-market performance: 5.9% (average), 1.1% (median)

  After-Market Performance by Sector

• Biopharma: 39.9% (average), 28.2% (median)

• MedTech: (0.1%) (average), (5.9%) (median)
  

Follow On

Follow-on activity was led by Legend Biotech, as investor interest within in-vivo CAR-T continues to be strong

There were four follow-on equity offerings totaling approximately $364M this week

• Legend Biotech Corporation (NASDAQ: LEGN) announced a $226.0M underwritten public offering to support its cell therapy business, including CARVYKTI, a BCMA-directed CAR-T therapy for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, and its broader clinical pipeline, including LB2501, an investigational in vivo CD19/CD20 dual-targeting CAR-T therapy for relapsed / refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma

• Alvotech (Nasdaq: ALVO; ALVO-SDB) announced an $85M underwritten public offering to fund the continued development of its biosimilar assets, including approved / marketed biosimilars, as well as a broader pipeline of biosimilar candidates across autoimmune disorders, eye disorders, osteoporosis, respiratory disease, and cancer. Alvotech also announced a concurrent private placement, bringing expected aggregate gross proceeds to approximately $152M

• SOPHiA GENETICS SA (NASDAQ: SOPH) announced a $50M underwritten public offering to support its AI-driven precision medicine business, including the SOPHiA DDM™ Platform for genomic data analysis and interpretation across oncology and rare & inherited disorders

  
  

PIPE/RDO Markets:

There were four PIPEs / RDOs last week raising an aggregate of $37.4M

Licensing

Licensing activity concentrated mainly around the AbCellera and Jazz deal focused on T-cell engagers for solid tumors, an AI-focused deal between Merck and Protillion Biosciences, and a regional rights deal between Everest Medicines and Dimerix for Dimerix’s FSGS asset

M&A

Eli Lilly’s historic M&A activity this year continues with their acquisition of 4E Therapeutics, while Biogen acquires a preclinical company focused on immune-mediated indications

Venture Financing

VC investment focused on relatively de-risked opportunities, including multi-specific antibodies with validated targets, a gene therapy delivery investment leveraging extracellular vesicles, a modality being broadly pursued by multiple companies, and an investment in a company focused on developing an extended-release formulation of ketamine