Week of May 2, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Market Rebound Continues: Although the Nasdaq and S&P 500 recouped all of its losses since “Liberation Day” on April 2nd, the effect of policy changes in DC ranging from tariffs to agency cuts will most likely result in continued market volatility

• FDA Delays First PDUFA Date: Stealth BioTherapeutics reported that its rare disease drug was delayed last week, reinforcing concerns many in the industry had that the current administration’s agency cuts will impede drug approvals

• M&A Finally Sees Some Action: There were two notable M&A transactions last week: Merck KGaA’s acquisition of the oncology focused SpringWorks Therapeutics and Novartis’ acquisition of Regulus Therapeutics’ nephrology pipeline

  • These transactions mark the first meaningful deal announcements since early April

US and EU - Markets Overview

• The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow finished the week up 2.9%, 3.4%, and 3.0% thanks to an unexpectedly strong jobs report and news that China is open to trade talks

  • Investors reacted well to April’s job report which saw 177,000 jobs added, slightly below the 185,000 jobs added in March—but well above the expectations of 133,000

• China said it is evaluating the possibility of starting trade negotiations with the US, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that discussions could begin by focusing on fentanyl

• ​Despite the markets’ positive performance, one area of possible concern was negative US GDP numbers for Q1 2025

  • The Commerce Department reported that GDP dropped 0.3% in Q1 2025, far below the 0.4% increase that economists projected and a stark contrast to the 2.4% growth in Q4 2024

Healthcare indices finished the week with gains with the NBI and NYSE Arca Pharma Index up 3.3% and 1.2%, respectively

Notable changes in share price:

• Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO): Finished the week up 11.4% largely in part to news that the FDA accepted the Company’s NDA for an oral version of Wegovy

• Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY): Stock dropped 5.4% to end the week despite the pharma giant reporting a 45% increase in sales YoY; the two things that worried investors were that the company lowered its profit outlook for 2025 and CVS dropped Zepbound from its preferred drug list

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

There were no IPOs completed or filed last week:

• 27 companies in total remain in the queue, of which ~80% intend to raise less than $30.0M in proceeds

• Of these, eight companies filed between Q4 2024 and today

• The largest US and EU healthcare IPOs to-date are Metsera’s (NASDAQ: MTSR) $275.0M and Asker Healthcare’s (STO: ASKER) $888.1M raise, respectively

• The average and median performance YTD for all IPOs this year is (3.7%) and (0.9%)
  
  

Follow-On Offering Markets:

There were no follow-on offerings last week.

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were three PIPEs/RDOs last week raising an aggregate of $31.6M in proceeds

Liscensing

M & A

Venture Financing

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