Biopharma and other fledgling health care companies continue to save the otherwise sickly initial public offering market.
As investors await the expected offering of Anthropic later this month, just three companies plan to go public this week, the first IPOs of November. All are health care–related. This is no surprise. Of the nine companies that went public in October, seven were biopharma-related.
Only 121 IPOs have been priced so far this year, a 36 percent decline from 2025, according to Renaissance Capital. This puts new offerings on pace for the worst year since 2023.
Just two of the seven biopharma companies that went public last month are in the black, however.
Lycia Therapeutics is the big winner, up 70 percent since it began trading on October 22. It is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics to degrade disease-causing extracellular proteins, with an initial focus on autoimmune, inflammatory, and allergic diseases.
At least five hedge funds held positions in the stock before it went public, including three listed as 5 percent owners in the company’s S-1 filing. Redmile Biopharma Investments III owned 11.1 percent of the shares, entities affiliated with RTW Investments 9.7 percent, and Janus Henderson Biotech Innovation Master Fund 9.3 percent. Other investors included Balyasny Asset Management and Adage Capital Management.
City Therapeutics, which is working on RNA interference-based medicines, is the other biopharmaceuticals company that is in the black since going public last month. It has added about 2 percent since it began trading on October 15.
Two of the three companies slated to price their shares this week do not have hedge fund investors.
They are Switzerland-based vVardis, which claims to have the first clinically validated noninvasive treatment for early-stage cavities, and Rezera, a biopharma company developing oral NLRP3 inhibitors for inflammatory diseases.
Windward Bio, the third company gearing up to go public this week, has attracted several hedge fund investors. Also Switzerland-based, it is developing antibodies for respiratory and dermatologic diseases.
It plans to sell nearly 10.3 million shares for between $16 and $18 apiece. At the high end of the range, the company would raise more than $185 million. As part of the IPO, Swiss drug giant Sanofi agreed to purchase a private placement worth $50 million of common shares and prefunded warrants.
Entities affiliated with RTW Investments own 5.7 percent of the shares, according to a regulatory filing. Over the years, it has made two different private investments. Hedge fund investors not listed in the filing as 5 percent holders include RA Capital Management and Janus Henderson, each of which participated in one previous financing.
