After a well-documented lull in 2016 and a sluggish start to 2017, the global therapeutic IPO market has started to bounce back in Q2, with 27 drug development companies successfully raising over $2.83B across nine global markets. This represents a 125% increase in the frequency of IPOs and a whopping 445% increase in funds raised when compared to Q1-2017.
Regional Focus: Americas
A total of fourteen therapeutics companies successfully IPO’d on the NASDAQ market during Q2, raising over $1B. BioHaven Pharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs for neurological diseases such as migraines as well as rare disorders, was the largest of the NASDAQ IPOs raising $168.3M. The NASDAQ continues to attract interest from companies around the world, with five of the fourteen companies debuting during Q2 being incorporated outside of the United States. Dutch Oncology/Autoimmune-focused company argenx was the largest of the foreign NASDAQ IPOs, raising $99.7M.
Regional Focus: Europe
Ten companies successfully IPO’d on European markets this quarter raising a combined total of over $1.4B. Idorsia, which debuted on the Swiss SIX exchange after being spun out of Actelion following its $30B acquisition by J&J, accounted for $1.23B of the revenue raised across the European markets and highlights investor confidence in both CEO JeanPaul Clozel and Idorsia’s pipeline of early-stage experimental medicines.
Elsewhere in Europe, five Scandinavian companies made their stock market debuts on the NASDAQ OMX market, with Swedish company Bonesupport ($57.1M raised) and Isofol Medical ($47.39M raised) leading the pack.
Despite the tumultuous impact of Brexit on the British Pound, UK companies SkinBioTherapeutics and N4 Pharma both made their debut on the AIM market, generating a combined total of $7.56M. British drug developer Verona Pharma, which has been listed on the LSE since 2006, successfully raised $77.87M in a NASDAQ IPO.
Regional Focus: Asia Pacific
Eris Lifesciences, which debuted on the Bombay Stock Exchange in mid-June after raising $269.9M, further highlights the ongoing trend of strong stock-market debuts for generics manufacturers in developing countries. Elsewhere in the APAC region, Chinese generics company Ningbo Menovo Pharma successfully listed on the Shanghai SE after raising $61.1M. Elsewhere in mainland China, Guiyang Xintian Pharmaceutical successfully IPO’d on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, raising $46m.
Summary
Whilst the frequency and valuation of drug development IPOs has not returned to the watershed levels of 2014, a strong uptick in Q2-2017 activity highlights growing investor confidence in therapeutics companies. With 12 companies making their stock market debut in June alone, it appears as though the sluggish IPO market has finally turned a corner.
This article is comprised of selected data from Evolution Bioscience’s exclusive Therapeutic IPO Data Visualisation, which compiles global market data from 2012 onwards, offering a comprehensive historical analysis of trends in biopharmaceutical drug development. You can view the fully-interactive data visualisation by clicking on the button below:
