- Twelve biotech IPOs have priced in the first half of 2026, raising roughly $4.4 billion combined, according to Pitchbook and Fierce data — up from 11 biotech IPOs across all of 2025, per BDO’s Spring 2026 Biotech Brief.
- Rich Ramko, speaking to PharmaSource, said the reopening window favors late-stage assets, repeat management teams, and strong platform technologies — and that companies need to be nimble and have public-company readiness in place to take advantage of this window.
The biotech IPO market is staging its strongest run since 2021, and Rich Ramko, EY’s recently retired US Life Sciences Leader and expert in biotech capital markets, expects momentum to keep building into late 2026. His caveat: the window is reopening, but “the bar has shifted.”
Biotech IPO Market Landscape
“After a challenging couple of years, the biotech IPO market is showing signs of life,” Rich says. Pitchbook and Fierce data show 12 biotech IPOs priced between January and June 2026, raising a combined $4.4 billion. Several were substantial: Parabilis Medicines raised $770.5 million in June, Kailera Therapeutics pulled in $718.75 million in April, and Generate:Biomedicines raised $400 million in February. Compare that with 2025, when BDO’s Spring 2026 Biotech Brief counted just 11 biotech IPOs for the entire year.
Rich explains the reopening is being driven by two forces: “easing macro pressures and renewed investor appetite,” alongside “strong M&A activity and a backlog of companies with late-stage assets supporting future listings.” He describes the companies actually getting through as those with “late-stage assets, repeat management teams, and strong platform technologies.”
Selectivity is the defining feature of this recovery. “Momentum is returning, with select biotech companies successfully accessing public markets, yet investor appetite remains focused on high-quality, late-stage assets with clear differentiation,” Rich says, pointing to EY’s Biotech Beyond Borders 2026 report, which describes how leaders can navigate what it calls a more disciplined IPO environment. Post-listing performance in the IPO calendar data illustrates the dispersion he’s describing: VeraDermics is up 635% since its February listing and Hemab Therapeutics has more than doubled, while Eikon Therapeutics trades 38% below its offer price and AgomAb is down 19%.
Not everyone reads the market the same way. BDO’s Spring 2026 brief — titled “Is It Biotech’s Bifurcation Year?” — takes a more cautious view, counting only five biotech IPOs in 2026 within its analysis window and arguing that going public may not be a viable near-term path for most companies. The firm notes that 45 companies exited the NASDAQ Biotech Index in 2025, with 21 acquired and 21 falling below eligibility thresholds, and that life sciences VC activity slid to 1,827 deals in 2025 — its lowest count in the Pitchbook-NVCA data since 2016.
Where BDO and Rich converge is on bifurcation. BDO’s report concludes that companies with strong, late-stage assets have a seat at the dealmaking table while early-stage companies risk staying stuck without funding — many staying private, falling below index thresholds, or quietly dissolving.
Rich’s Advice to Biotechs: Be Ready Before the Window Opens
Rich’s message to biotech leadership teams is “the importance of readiness — from operating as a public company to timing the market effectively.” In his framing, the question isn’t whether the window opens; it’s whether your organization is in a position to use it when it does.
That readiness work starts well before an S-1. Rich has spent his career helping companies understand what it takes to go public — sharing lessons from past IPOs, highlighting common mistakes to avoid, and advising leaders on how to prepare for market opportunities. The message is consistent: build the reporting, governance, and operational discipline of a public company while you are still private. The IPO should not be the moment a company starts learning how to operate like one.
The second piece is honest self-assessment against what investors are actually funding. With appetite concentrated on “high-quality, late-stage assets with clear differentiation.” Companies without that profile — earlier-stage, undifferentiated, or first-time teams — face a harder path. BDO’s brief makes the same point from the demand side: investors now want revenue, clinical proof-of-concept, and clear pathways to profitability, qualifications the firm says are becoming stricter as macroeconomic pressures persist.
According to Rich, most companies underestimate the preparation required. “Nobody’s as ready as they think they are,” he says. The strongest candidates typically begin preparing 18–24 months before an IPO.
That means moving beyond a private-company operating model: completing PCAOB-ready audits, building quarterly reporting processes, accelerating financial closes, strengthening the board, and putting experienced finance, legal, investor relations, and cybersecurity capabilities in place.
Winning an IPO Starts Long Before the Roadshow
Rich says one mistake biotech companies make is assuming IPO preparation starts with filings. In reality, it starts with investors.
“The most important thing that companies have to do before they go public is line up their shareholders — who’s going to buy your stock,” he says. In recent years, IPOs have relied heavily on insider participation, meaning existing shareholders need to support the transaction before new investors come in.
He advises companies to identify the institutional investors and buy-side analysts they need relationships with well before any offering. “If you haven’t spent probably a year doing that, you’re just not going to be successful,” Rich says. Investors backing a biotech IPO are putting their reputation behind the company — and need confidence that management can deliver on promised milestones.
The IPO Is Not the Finish Line
Rich cautions that biotech companies often focus too heavily on the transaction itself. “The IPO is just the first step,” he says. The bigger challenge is operating successfully as a public company afterwards.
A company can execute a strong offering, but a missed filing deadline, inaccurate disclosure, or reporting issue immediately after listing can damage credibility. “One hiccup is going to take a management team an extended period of time to regain its credibility,” Rich says, adding that investors need confidence that management’s forecasts, milestones, and communications can be trusted.
China and AI Could Shape the Next Generation of IPO Candidates
Looking beyond the current IPO cycle, Rich says competition from China may reshape what future biotech investors expect.
“China went from a copycat pharmaceutical industry to innovators,” he says, pointing to increased collaboration dollars flowing toward Chinese companies. As global competition increases, he expects US companies to rely more heavily on AI to accelerate target identification, reduce development timelines, and improve clinical trial efficiency.
“The use of AI is going to have to be more prevalent,” he says. “The time and cost to bring things to clinical trials is going to have to significantly decrease.”
