Biotech’s IPO outlook for the rest of the year sours in wake of war, broader industry struggles

For­get IPOs. Biotech in­sid­ers ex­pect to see a hand­ful of re­verse merg­ers be­fore the end of the year, sim­i­lar to Wednes­day’s hand­shake be­tween Nas­daq-list­ed Graphite Bio and eye drop mak­er Lenz Ther­a­peu­tics, and Thurs­day’s deal be­tween Ho­mol­o­gy Med­i­cines and Q32 Bio.

“It wasn’t ur­gent to us. It’s not that we had to do some­thing,” Lenz Ther­a­peu­tics CEO Eef Schim­melpen­nink told End­points News, say­ing the com­pa­ny had enough mon­ey to car­ry it to 2025 with­out the deal. “This was just the right thing with the right in­vestors at the right mo­ment.”

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