Week of May 9, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Markets Finish the Week Flat: The confluence of trade negotiations, Fed caution, and mixed macro-economic signals resulted in the three major indices closing with an average loss of 0.3%

• There’s a New CBER Chief In Town: FDA Commissioner Marty Makary named Dr. Vinay Prasad as the next director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) following Peter Marks’ departure, a decision that many view as a controversial pick, given his prior criticism of COVID-19 vaccine guidance and the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway

• NBI Freefall: The NBI experienced its worst day of the year on Tuesday, dropping 6.0% as investors reacted negatively to both Dr. Prasad’s appointment as the head of the CBER and growing speculation around a potential Most Favored Nation drug pricing policy

• Fund Formation Sees Contrast with Capital Deployment: Venture financing has observed a significant slowdown in Q2 despite VC funds raising a promising $2.7B in capital in Q1 (above $2.4B raised in Q1 2024), as investors remain hesitant to deploy capital amid volatile markets and regulatory uncertainty

US and EU - Markets Overview

• The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow finished the week down (0.5%), (0.3%), and (0.2%) as the Fed holds rates steady and the US announced its first trade deal

  • The Fed held interest rates at 4.25-4.50% as expected but warned that tariffs may slow economic growth

• Despite US GDP contracting in Q1 2025, several indicators suggest resilience in the US economy:

  • Strong earnings – 86% of S&P 500 companies beat Q1 earnings expectations

  • Growth in the labor market – 177K jobs were added in April, well above the expected 133K

Healthcare indices plummeted last week with NBI and NYSE Pharma Index down 8.5% and 6.8%, respectively, which was largely attributed to Dr. Prasad’s appointment as head of CBER

Notable changes in share price:

• Cell and Gene Therapy Companies: Companies like uniQure (NASDAQ: QURE), Sarepta (NASDAQ: SRPT), and Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RCKT) all observed losses of 20% or more on Tuesday (the day of Dr. Prasad’s appointment)

• Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: IOVA): Shares plummeted ~45% on Friday after the Company cut its 2025 sales projections and reported lower-than-expected sales for its cell therapy Amtagvi

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

Two healthcare companies filed for initial public offerings (IPOs) last week:

• Omada Health, which offers virtual care programs for chronic and cardiometabolic conditions, filed to raise $100.0M

• CapsoVision, a medical technology company developing endoscopic video imaging devices for GI procedures, filed to raise $30.0M

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

Year-to-date, companies that have gone public in 2025 have delivered an average return of –3.7% and a median return of –0.9%

Follow-On Offering Markets:

There were five follow-on offerings last week totaling ~$172.0M, with ~90% of deal value coming from one financing:

• Tyra Biosciences (NASDAQ: TYRA) completed a follow-on equity offering of ~$150M to accelerate development of its FGFR-targeted pipeline, which includes its lead candidate TYRA-300 in metastatic urothelial carcinoma
  
  
  

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were no PIPEs/RDOs the past week

Licensing

M & A

There were no M&A deals this week

Venture Financing

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