Week of May 30, 2025

The Week at a Glance:

• Markets Notch Minor Gains: US equities finished the week slightly up due to promising inflation numbers and the ruling by the United States Court of International Trade (USCIT) that the current administration overstepped with its implementation of tariffs. The White House’s successful appeal means that tariffs will remain in place until a final ruling is made

• No Pain, More Gains: Eli Lilly finished the week up 3.8% spurred by the news of its $1.0B acquisition of SiteOne Therapeutics, which includes SiteOne’s Phase 2-ready oral Nav1.8 inhibitor for the treatment of pain

• NIH Stares Down Deep Cuts: The HHS released details of President Trump’s FY2026 budget request cutting the NIH discretionary budget by ~40.0% and reducing the agency’s 27 institutes/centers to just eight, a move that some are claiming could have dire consequences to US leadership in biomedicine

  Meet us in Boston at BIO 2025: DNB//Back Bay will be at BIO International Convention in Boston from June 16-19, 2025. If you would like to schedule a meeting with our strategy and finance teams or learn about our welcome breakfast for Nordic healthcare companies, contact us.

Markets Overview

• The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow ended the week up 1.9%, 2.0%, and 1.6%, respectively, driven by a potential pause in tariffs and promising inflation data

  • Stock rallied in response to the Court of Internal Trade ruling that Trump does not have the authority to impose most of the broad sweeping tariffs announced on “Liberation Day”

  • Following an appeal, the White House was granted the request for a pause on removing the tariffs  

  • The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge for inflation, rose 0.1% in April and 2.1% annually – only slightly above the Fed’s goal of 2.0%

Healthcare indices finished the week mixed with the NYSE Arca Pharma Index up 2.3% and the NBI down 0.1%

Notable changes in share price:

• Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RCKT): Shares plummeted ~60.0% on Tuesday morning following the announcement that the FDA placed a clinical hold on its Phase 2 gene therapy program in Danon disease due to a patient death

  Spero Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SPRO): Stock price skyrocketed over 200.0% on Wednesday morning after the Company announced it reached its primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial for its UTI antibiotic

Sources: Pitchbook, Biomedtracker, and CapIQ

Equity Markets

IPO Markets:

• No companies filed to go public last week

• 22 companies in total remain in the queue, of which only four intend to raise more than $30.0M in proceeds. Of these, nine companies filed between Q4 2024 and week’s end

• Year-to-date, companies that have gone public in 2025 have delivered an average return of -1.6% and a median return of 5.4%

Follow-On Offering Markets:

• There were six follow-on offerings last week totaling $145.6M, with only one deal over $30.0M:

• Taysha Gene Therapies raised $128.9M in a follow-on equity offering to fund development of its gene therapy programs for rare CNS diseases (e.g., Rett syndrome)
  
  
  

PIPE/RDO Markets:

• There were two PIPEs/RDOs the past week totaling $205.0M in proceeds

  • ORIC Pharmaceuticals grossed $125.0M to advance its clinical programs focused on overcoming resistance in cancer

  • Lexeo Therapeutics secured $80.0M to further develop its pipeline of cardiovascular and CNS therapies

     

Licensing

M & A

Venture Financing

CONNECT with the Authors >>

MEET THE DNB // BACK BAY TEAM >>