The ICR Westwicke Blog is designed to deliver information and insights into the ever-changing world of healthcare communications.
As the MedTech and broader healthcare investment community returns from the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference and embarks on a new year, our experts provide insight and perspective on the key topics and variables that will influence activity in 2023.
The second quarter of 2022 was the weakest quarter for healthcare and biotech IPOs in more than five years. Some media headlines have predicted that it marked the bottom of the biotech market.
The XBI biotech index fund, which serves as an index for many companies that are eyeing a public debut, peaked in January 2021 followed by a fairly steady 16-month decline. But now, the XBI is on the rise. While it’s too soon to know if the XBI rise that kicked off in July 2022 will continue to mirror the rise that drove its 2021 peak, the climb appears to be signaling a comeback of healthcare and biotech IPOs.
If you’re watching the fund, you might now be considering reviving your plans to take your company public.
Each year, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference provides a critical opportunity to meet with analysts, investors, and other leaders in the healthcare industry. However, making the most of the conference takes preparation.
In the face of a global pandemic, capital markets have (understandably) seen unprecedented behavior over the past two years. With vaccines, rapid testing, and medical research at center stage of every news outlet and publication, the biotech sector has been especially active. There have been major shifts in both buy- and sell-side activities, leaving many companies wondering how to best raise capital as the world finds its new normal. As young and emerging biotech companies look forward, there is growing concern about the current and future state of funding.
Special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) activity has exploded in the past two years, from 59 transactions in 2019, to 248 deals in 2020, to 308 SPACs so far in 2021. However, SPACs are not new. This type of transaction has been around for decades, continually evolving as it rises and falls in popularity.
Going public is a transformational event that gives companies the capital they need to invest in future growth, attract top talent, and raise their profile, while providing liquidity to investors and employees.
The 2021 Westwicke / ICR Conference went virtual this year — and like many in-person events suddenly turned remote, attendees found new and unexpected opportunities for connecting with each other. Namely, the ability, finally, to be in two meetings at once.
After a long period of market uncertainty driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, the second half of 2020 saw market conditions improve for IPOs with a recent flurry of tech companies making their debut. With increased demand to access the public markets, a strong pipeline of companies set to come to market is shaping up quickly for all of 2021.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the IPO market may never look the same. The swift shift to virtual roadshows, for example, has demonstrated efficiencies that are likely to make digital alternatives stick even after regular business travel resumes. But beyond the operational changes behind preparing a company to go public, the market has seen growing interest in alternatives to the IPO itself.
The challenges of functioning successfully in an extended COVID-19 environment have presented many new ways of doing business. This is especially evident for events such as non-deal roadshows (NDRs).
