Key highlights from October:

• Micro-cap biotechs (<$500mm) have continued to climb above large-cap names, while small-caps and mid-caps have also sustained strong gains over the last month
• There was an uptick in licensing and M&A activity in October; 10 M&A and 25 licensing transactions were announced this month, versus 6 M&A and 10 licensing transactions announced in September of 2025; M&A markets favored late-stage clinical assets this month, with the exception of BMS’s buyout of the preclinical biotech orbital therapeutics in a $1.5bn all-cash deal
• Twelve high-value licensing deals exceeded $1bn, primary for preclinical or early clinical assets
• IPO markets remained slow, with Phase 2 neuropsych-focused biotech MapLight Therapeutics pricing their IPO early in the month at an offer price of $17.00 per share; the company raised $251mm in gross proceeds and is trading down 0.5% since IPO
• Follow-on activity rose to 35 priced deals in October raising an aggregate of $5.4bn up from $3.7bn in September, led by Praxis’s $525mm offering
• Pfizer filed suit against Metsera, alleging breach of merger agreement and Delaware law after Novo Nordisk submitted a $9.0bn unsolicited offer ($56.50/sh upfront + up to $21.50/sh in CVRs) that outbid Pfizer’s $7.3bn deal, calling Novo’s proposal “reckless and unprecedented” and claimed that the Novo offer should not be deemed “Superior”
• Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide (Zepbound for obesity/Mounjaro for diabetes) became the world’s top-selling drug just three years following its approval after generating $10.1bn in Q3 sales and eclipsing Merck’s Keytruda, which took nine years to claim the number one spot