CF Pharmtech Inc. raised HK$607.67 million (US$78.12 million) through the sale of 41.19 million H shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) Oct. 8. The proceeds will be used to advance the Suzhou, China-based drug developer’s portfolio of inhalation candidates for respiratory diseases.
Total biopharma financings reached $18.69 billion in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025, rising 14% from $16.41 billion in Q2 and 42% from $13.12 billion in Q1. While still far below the pandemic-era peaks, when quarterly totals often surpassed $30 billion, Q3’s raise stands among the highest since 2022.
Biopharma financings from January through September 2025 totaled $47.1 billion, a sharp decline from 2024’s $86.7 billion during the same period and well below the highs of 2020 and 2021. The slowdown was driven largely by weaker follow-on activity, which brought in $12.9 billion compared to more than $40 billion last year.
Genfleet Therapeutics (Shanghai) Inc. debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on its second attempt at an IPO, raising HK$1.819 billion (US$234 million). Genfleet’s shares (HKEX:2595) rose to HK$44.00 at the opening bell on Sept. 19 and closed at HK$42.10, about 106% higher than the listing price.
LB Pharmaceuticals Inc. became the first traditional biopharma company to price an IPO in the U.S. since February, raising $285 million through the upsized sale of 19 million shares at $15 apiece. Shares, now listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LBRX, rose 15% to close Sept. 11 at $17.30.
Although 2024 showed signs of recovery, 2025 is once again reflecting an IPO slowdown, with global biopharma IPO proceeds in the first seven months of the year falling to their lowest level since 2016.
Biopharma financing activity has continued to remain low compared to the highs seen in recent years, with a total of $39.83 billion raised across IPOs, follow-on offerings, public/other and private financings in the first eight months of 2025.
“Our mission is to apply our protein-protein interaction (PPI) big data-generation platform to create novel antibody therapeutics,” Proteina Co. Ltd. CEO Yoon Tae-young recently told BioWorld. “We have been working to build a proprietary technology platform for more than 15 years,” Yoon said, “and we take pride in the fact that we made our own technology platform, instead of running a company based on licensed-in technology.”
The amount of money raised through global biopharma IPOs in the first seven months of 2025 is at the lowest level since 2016, and more than half of the 13 completed through July were done on ex-U.S. exchanges. Only five of the companies have U.S. roots, while the rest are based in Asia: four in China, two in South Korea, one in Taiwan and one in Hong Kong.
G2Gbio Inc. debuted on the Korea Exchange with a ₩52.2 billion (US$37.7 million) IPO Aug. 14. Nearly half of the funds raised will be used to expand Cheongju-si, South Korea-based G2Gbio’s manufacturing plants and help mass produce sustained-release injectable drug products such as GB-5001, its lead candidate in development as a once-monthly formulation of donepezil (Aricept; Eisai Co. Ltd.) for Alzheimer’s disease.
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