In a big day of setting up IPOs for launch, the charge is being led by Royalty Pharma, a buyer of biopharmaceutical royalties and an industry funder, which is aiming at a $2 billion offering. That massive number is more than half of the total biotech offerings brought in through May.

Money raised through biopharma financings so far in 2020 is double the amount raised within the same timeframe of 2019, partly due to two large financings completed in May by Sanofi SA, which is working on candidates to treat or prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

American depositary shares in CAR T-focused Legend Biotech Corp. (NASDAQ:LEGN), offered in a red hot IPO at $23 each, took off Friday, rising 60.9% to close at $37 per share. Other offerings June 5, a buoyant day for U.S. markets after a surprising drop in unemployment, raised $154 million for cellular trafficking specialist Applied Molecular Transport Inc. and $90 million for Calliditas Therapeutics AB, the developer of an oral formulation of the corticosteroid budesonide.

BEIJING – Androgen receptor (AR)-related disease specialist Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd., of Suzhou, China, raised $240 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on May 22 by issuing 92.3 million shares at HK$20.15 apiece. The IPO was oversubscribed by 551 times, showing the city’s biotech fever.

The pandemic hasn't kept biotechs from going public. In fact, through the first five or so months of the year, the industry has raised more than $3.3 billion through IPOs, more capital than biotechs have raised during the first five months of any of the previous 20 years.

Wall Street has stabilized enough after the recent pandemic-induced volatility to offer enthusiastic support to a med tech generating significant revenue that already reached breakeven during the first quarter. Inari Medical Inc. priced its IPO at the top of an already upwardly revised range to raise $156 million. It sold 8.2 million shares at $19, above the prior range of $17 to $18. Shares of the Irvine, Calif.-based company (NASDAQ:NARI) then more than doubled to hit about $43 on its first day of trading.

BEIJING – Androgen receptor (AR)-related disease specialist Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd., of Suzhou, China, raised $240 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on May 22 by issuing 92.3 million shares at HK$20.15 apiece. The IPO was oversubscribed by 551 times, showing the city’s biotech fever.

BEIJING – Suzhou, China-based Peijia Medical Co. Ltd. became the second prerevenue med-tech company to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) after Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) Inc., pocketing HK$2.3 billion (US$302 million) with an aim to develop and commercialize its transcatheter valve therapeutic medical device called Taurusone.

Coming out of the IPO gate strong was Lausanne, Switzerland-based ADC Therapeutics SA, which priced about 12 million shares at $19 each, for gross proceeds of about $232.7 million in an upsized deal. Shares (NYSE:ADCT) ended the day at $29.65, up $10.65, or 56%.