Week of September 5, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Hopes rise for rate cuts: The S&P 500 and NASDAQ finished the shorter trading week up 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively, thanks to a weak August job report that bolstered expectations for a rate cut in September

• Novartis doubles down on RNAi: Novartis inked two licensing deals last week around RNA interference modalities; the first was with Arrowhead for its preclinical siRNA drug targeting Parkinson’s for $200.0M upfront and $2.0B in milestones, while the second was for Argo Biopharmaceuticals’ RNAi asset in Phase 2 targeting dyslipidemia along with two discovery stage compounds for $160.0M upfront and $5.2B in milestones

  • Novartis’ deal with Argo Biopharmaceuticals highlights the continued trend this year of large pharma in-licensing assets from China

Markets Overview

• The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.3% and 1.1% respectively, while the Dow slipped 0.3%

  • Only 22K job were added in August versus 75K that were expected, highlighting a weakening labor market and forcing the Fed’s hand to cut rates in September

The NYSE Pharma Index and NBI increased 0.2% and 3.6% respectively on the week

Notable changes in share price:

• Cytokinetics (NASDAQ: CYTK): Shares rose 41.5% after potentially paradigm-shifting Phase 3 results in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM)

• United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR): Shares rose 30.7% after Tyvaso delivered positive results in a pivotal Phase 3 trial for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)

• Genmab (NASDAQ: GMAB): Shares rose 10.7% after epcoritamab, a T-cell engager partnered with AbbVie, reported positive Phase 2 results in r/r diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the outpatient setting, supporting broader patient access

• Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ; WVE): Shares fell 16.2% after Wave’s RNA editor failed to meet expectations in its Phase 1b/2a interim readout for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). Other AATD companies traded higher on the news: KRRO +38.3% and BEAM +23.8%

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

• No companies completed IPOs last week

• No companies filed an S-1 last week

• 19 companies in total remain in the queue, of which only one intends to raise more than $30.0M in proceeds

• For the year-to-date, companies that have gone public in 2025 have had a median gain of 18.8%

Follow-On Offering Markets:

• There were four follow-on equity offerings last week totaling $294.4M, including:

  • Mineralys Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MLYS) raised $287.5M to support lorundrostat through pre-commercialization activities in hypertension and clinical development in CKD and obstructive sleep apnea

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were two PIPEs/RDOs last week raising an aggregate $82.2M

Licensing

M & A

There were no M&A deals this week.

Venture Financing

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