Upfront Briefing
Friday brings a cheque, a caveat and a comeback. ADARx priced an upsized $446.3M IPO at the top of its range, the first RNAi float in more than a decade, with AbbVie writing another ~$89M on the side. Merck got its pivotal DME win for the $3B EyeBio asset, though the safety table did most of the talking. Lilly put a once-weekly basal insulin on the shelf with Onswik, four days before EASD opens in Milan, where Novo's CagriSema REIMAGINE 1 late-breakers land Tuesday and Lilly's retatrutide TRIUMPH-2 symposium runs Wednesday. On the Hill, FDA nominee Heidi Overton called vaccines and mifepristone safe and effective, then declined to promise the advisory committees back. The committee vote comes next.
Tape Action
| Instrument |
Last close |
1D % |
YTD % |
| S&P 500 |
7,704.1 |
0.0% |
+12.5% |
| Nasdaq 100 |
30,478.9 |
0.0% |
+19.7% |
| Russell 2000 |
2,835.6 |
(0.1%) |
+13.4% |
| Healthcare (XLV) |
169.9 |
+0.6% |
+9.7% |
| Biotech (XBI) |
156.1 |
+0.5% |
+28.0% |
| Nasdaq Biotech (NBI) |
7,079.5 |
+0.9% |
+24.1% |
| Clinical Trials (BBC) |
45.8 |
(1.9%) |
+21.7% |
|
- Biotech clawed back a sliver of Wednesday's rate-driven rout: NBI +0.9% and XBI +0.5% (about an eighth of Wednesday's 4.1% drop), with XLV +0.6% and clinical-stage BBC down another (1.9%). No single sector catalyst.
- Bonds kept the lid on: the 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.43% on Thursday, its highest since 2004, with the 10-year above 5.1% as the New York and Philadelphia Fed presidents floated further hikes. A midday Reuters report of a phased US-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz pared losses, leaving the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 flat and the Russell 2000 (0.1%) as the Trump-Xi summit opened with the trade truce extended to 10 January.
- Market data: U.S. cash close Thursday, 24 September 2026.
The Big 3
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1
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ADARx prices upsized $446M IPO at the top of its range
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- ADARx sold 26.25M shares at $17, the top of its $15–17 range and upsized from 21.875M, for $446.3M gross; AbbVie adds ~$89M in a concurrent private placement for ~4.9%, taking the total to ~$535M. ADRX debuts on Nasdaq today; lead asset onvuzosiran, a potentially twice-yearly siRNA for hereditary angioedema, is in Phase 3.
- Why it matters: ADARx is the first RNAi developer to price a traditional U.S. IPO in more than a decade, and it upsized at the top of the range in a week when the 10-year Treasury yield hit a 19-year high. That is the read-through for Iambic, TRex Bio and City Therapeutics, all of which filed in the past week. The AbbVie top-up matters more than the headline: a partner that paid $335M upfront in 2025 is buying stock at $17, which underwrites the extrahepatic pipeline story. The catch is duration. Onvuzosiran's first Phase 3 data are not due until end-2027 and Ionis' Dawnzera is already on the HAE market, so the stock has to hold a platform valuation for two years without a pivotal catalyst.
- Source: BioPharma Dive
- More: Bloomberg
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2
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Merck's $3B EyeBio bet clears pivotal DME test, with a safety asterisk
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- Remigromig, a Wnt-agonist trispecific from the EyeBio buyout, was non-inferior to ranibizumab (Lucentis) on best-corrected visual acuity at week 52 at both doses in the Phase 2b/3 BRUNELLO trial in DME. Merck also reported higher rates of proliferative diabetic retinopathy, vitreous hemorrhage and AE-driven discontinuations than on ranibizumab; full data go to AAO next month.
- Why it matters: Non-inferiority to Lucentis was the low bar: Wells Fargo's Mohit Bansal had already pressed Merck on whether it was going after the weakest VEGF comparator, and BRUNELLO cleared exactly that bar. The bigger issue is the imbalance in proliferative retinopathy and vitreous hemorrhage, precisely the outcomes a barrier-restoring Wnt agonist should prevent, after EyeBio's Phase 1b/2a showed no drug-related AEs. Merck paid $1.3B upfront plus up to $1.7B in milestones for EyeBio in 2024 as Keytruda LOE insurance. Its pitch is the 30–40% of patients who don't respond or stop responding to VEGF drugs, which points to add-on use alongside Regeneron's Eylea and Roche's Vabysmo rather than displacement. The second Phase 2b/3, due in March, decides whether the signal replicates.
- Source: Fierce Biotech
- More: BioPharma Dive
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| 3 | FDA approves Lilly's once-weekly insulin Onswik |
- The FDA approved Onswik (insulin efsitora alfa-gobe) for adults with type 2 diabetes on four Phase 3 QWINT trials in more than 3,400 patients, each non-inferior on A1C to daily glargine or degludec. It is the second weekly basal insulin in the U.S. after Novo's Awiqli; KwikPens (500 and 1,000 units/mL) launch in the coming months, and the label excludes type 1 on severe-hypoglycemia risk.
- Why it matters: This is a convenience product, not an efficacy upgrade: QWINT showed A1C non-inferiority, with EMA-reported differences versus daily comparators of 0.01 to 0.09 points. The commercial fight is with Novo's Awiqli, approved in March and launched in August at a listed $99 per package, so contracting will decide share more than data. The type 1 carve-out after QWINT-5, where severe hypoglycemia ran about 10% versus 3% on degludec, caps the pool at type 2. Timing helps Lilly: Onswik lands four days before EASD in Milan, where Lilly presents Phase 3 retatrutide (TRIUMPH-2) and orforglipron (ACHIEVE-4) data, stacking a diabetes franchise from basal insulin to triple agonists.
- Source: BioSpace
- More: Lilly
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Everything Else that broke
- FDA nominee Heidi Overton called approved vaccines and mifepristone safe and effective at her HELP hearing but would not commit to restoring disbanded advisory committees; a committee vote comes next. — Fierce Biotech
- Elevar won FDA approval for FGFR2-selective Lyrfigtu in bile duct cancer, the first novel cancer drug from a Korean company cleared in the U.S. — Fierce Pharma
- Acadia's Phase 2 Alzheimer's trial missed its primary endpoint, but the company is pressing on with its Phase 3 program. — Fierce Biotech
- Sarepta will pay Regenxbio $39M to settle AAVrh74 patent litigation over Elevidys, with a covenant not to sue on future AAVrh74-based products. — Endpoints
Deal Flow
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BioBucks 2026 Deal Trackers • Updated weekly ⬇️
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M&A / BD&L
- Roche will pay Atavistik Bio $70M upfront, with up to $1.9B in milestones, for a CVRM allosteric small-molecule discovery pact on Atavistik's AMPS platform. — Fierce Biotech
- Henlius signed a T-cell engager deal with Amberstone Biosciences worth up to $440M. — Fierce Biotech
VC / Private Financings
- BigHat Biosciences raised a $75M Series C (total raised $223M) for its AI protein-design platform and clinical-stage ADC BHB810 in GI cancers, co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest, joined by Catalio Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures, Sigmas Group and Eli Lilly. — Business Wire
IPOs / Follow-Ons
- ADARx (ADRX) priced an upsized 26.25M-share IPO at $17, top of range, for $446.3M gross plus ~$89M from AbbVie in a concurrent placement; onvuzosiran (HAE siRNA) is in Phase 3. — BioPharma Dive
- Viking (VKTX) priced upsized offerings of $275M in common at $35.00, 16% below Wednesday's $41.65 close, and $225M of 2.00% converts due 2032 convertible at $50.75 (45% premium); Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan lead. — SEC
Academic Corner - Evorpacept added to trastuzumab, ramucirumab and paclitaxel lifted response in HER2-positive gastric cancer. — Nature Medicine
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