Week of October 17, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Indices rise slightly - Major indices were up ~2% thanks to the strong banks earnings and the softening rhetoric of the US President on China. However, the outcome of US-China trade dynamics is still to be determined.

• It was a busy week for follow-ons -  Last week was one of the most active weeks for follow-ons, as nine deals were announced, raising an aggregate of $1.4B

• Mega-rounds may be back -  Despite an overall decrease in the volume of mega-round activities relative to 2024, last week saw a surge of activity with six venture financing rounds raising >$100M each

  • The largest was Kailera Therapeutics’ $600M Series B to advance their Phase 3 obesity program for KAI-9531, a dual GLP-1/GIP agonist, tying Isomorphic Labs for the largest venture deal this year

• DNB Carnegie//Back Bay opened early registration for the 10th Annual Nordic-American Healthcare Conference, March 25-26, 2026, in NYC – US institutional investors, take note: early registration is now open for our US-Nordic healthcare equity conference taking place March 25-26, 2026 in New York City. This milestone year will feature expanded programming and explore emerging trends in healthcare innovation. US institutional investors can request a seat and company meetings here.

Markets Overview

• The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and the Dow were up 1.7%, 2.1%, and 1.6%, respectively

• The NYSE Pharma Index was down 0.8%, while the NBI was up 2.5%

• On Friday, the US President said he intends to significantly reduce prices for weight-loss drugs, which caused shares of Lilly and Novo Nordisk to fall ~2-3%

Other notable changes in share price included:

• Praxis Precision Medicines (NASDAQ: PRAX): Shares rose 255.0% after the Company announced positive Phase 3 data in essential tremor

• Omeros (NASDAQ: OMER): Shares surged 88.5% after Omeros announced that Novo Nordisk would acquire its Phase 3 paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria asset in a deal valued up to $2.1B

• Astria Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATXS): Shares jumped 44.8% after Astria announced its $700M acquisition by BioCryst, granting BioCryst access to navenibart, a Phase 3 asset for hereditary angioedema

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

• Last week, no companies completed IPOs or filed an S-1

• Of 22 companies in the queue, only three intend to raise more than $30M in proceeds

• IPOs that have priced this year have delivered a median gain of 17.8%, with ~60% of newly public companies trading above their offer price

Follow-On Offering Markets:

There were nine follow-on equity offerings last week totaling $1,390.6M, including:

• Praxis Precision Medicines (NASDAQ: PRAX) raised $525.0M to support late-stage clinical development and commercialization readiness for its CNS portfolio, including relutrigine in developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, ulixacaltamide in essential tremor, and vormatrigine in focal onset seizures and generalized epilepsy

• Spyre Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SYRE) raised $316.3M to fund clinical development of its biologics pipeline in inflammatory bowel and rheumatic diseases, including SPY001 (anti-α4β7 antibody) and SPY002 (anti-TL1A antibody) for ulcerative colitis and SPY072 (anti-TL1A antibody) for rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis

• EyePoint Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: EYPT) raised $150.0M to advance Phase 3 trials and commercialization preparation for DURAVYU™ (EYP-1901), its sustained-release tyrosine kinase inhibitor for wet AMD and diabetic eye diseases

• ATAI Life Sciences N.V. (NASDAQ: ATAI) raised $130.0M to fund ongoing Phase 2 studies and platform expansion in mental health and neuropsychiatric disorders, including VLS-01 for treatment resistant depression, EMP-01 for social anxiety disorder, and ELE-101 for major depressive disorder

• Lexeo Therapeutics (NASDAQ: LXEO) raised $125.0M to advance its AAV-based gene therapy programs for cardiovascular and neurological diseases, including LX2006 for Friedreich’s ataxia cardiomyopathy and LX2020 for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy

• C4 Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CCCC) raised $125.0M to support clinical advancement of targeted protein degraders for various cancers, including cemsidomide for multiple myeloma and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and CFT8919 for non-small cell lung cancer

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were six PIPE/RDO deals last week raising an aggregate $102.0M, including:

  • Rani Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RANI) raised a $60.0M private placement led by RA Capital, Anomaly, Special Situations Funds, Invus, and the Company founder and chairman, Mir Imran, to advance its pipeline using its proprietary oral biologics delivery platform (the RaniPill® platform)

Licensing

M & A

Venture Financing

CONNECT with the Authors >>