This could be the biggest week for biotech IPOs in years, even if the government remains temporarily shut down.
Government funding lapsed last Saturday, prompting a partial government shutdown that closed agencies not considered essential to public and national safety. The list of closed agencies includes the Securities and Exchange Commission, which must approve an IPO application before a company can go public.
The closure could be brief. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Meet the Press that he expects the Senate-passed funding bill to come up for a vote in the House on Tuesday. But until the government reopens, the SEC’s operations plan states that the agency will not process new or pending registration statements.
Across sectors, as many as eight companies are lined up for IPOs this week, according to IPO research firm Renaissance Capital. If all eight price their offerings this week, it would mark the most active week for IPOs since 2021, Renaissance said. Four on this list are biotech companies: Eikon Therapeutics, Veradermics, AgomAb Therapeutics and Spyglass Pharma. These biotechs could still go public even with the SEC closed. Before the government shutdown, the agency filed an effectiveness notice for each on Friday night. The filing is an SEC filing that contains a registration statement with all of the agency’s legal and regulatory requirements, authorizing the company to proceed with an IPO.
Although IPO activity in 2025 did not reach the heights many expected, the total number of new public companies still marked a four-year high, according to Renaissance’s 2026 IPO outlook report. The firm counted 202 companies that went public in 2025, raising $44 billion. Those numbers continue the upward trend in IPOs since a decline after the 2021 peak, when 397 IPOs raised $142.4 billion, according to the report.
Stabilizing macroeconomic conditions following tariff volatility in 2025, along with cooling inflation and falling interest rates, are among the factors Renaissance believes will drive IPO activity this year. The firm also said there are a large number of companies waiting to go public, many of them short-term IPO candidates. Renaissance projects that between 200 and 230 IPOs across sectors this year will raise between $40 billion and $60 billion.
Cooley partner Rich Segal said the strong IPO markets of 2020 and 2021 were not normal, and he doesn’t think the expectation should be for activity to return to those levels. Cooley sees a progressive increase in IPOs through 2026. Segal added that there is often IPO activity around the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference each January. Aktis Oncology had the first biotech IPO of 2026, debuting on the Nasdaq just before the conference.
Eikon, Veradermics, SpyGlass and AgomAb timed the filing of their registration statements to coincide with the JPM conference. Last week, those companies updated their filings with preliminary financial terms for their planned IPOs. Segal said that once the new year begins, many investors want to see immediate financial statements from the previous year. Some companies may delay the IPO date further in order to provide those dates.
There is another way to go public during a government shutdown. Under Section 8(a) of the Securities Act, a registration statement becomes effective 20 days after it is filed. Shashi Khiani, a shareholder in Polsinelli’s securities and corporate finance practice, notes that most companies don’t want to go public this way, so they include an amendment to the filing that delays effectiveness until the SEC notifies the company. That’s because if a company starts selling shares and the SEC later finds a problem with the prospectus, the company could face enforcement action from the regulator and lawsuits from shareholders. Companies that follow this path to the public markets are likely further along in the SEC’s prospectus review, Khiani said.
“Companies that have gone through a couple of rounds with the SEC now, where they have a modicum of comfort because they’ve addressed the SEC’s comments and there are no issues, I think might be stronger candidates or more likely to use this option,” he explained.
Because of the legal risks, Khiani has been advising his clients not to go public using the Section 8(a) rule. But two biotechs did use this rule to go public during the 43-day government shutdown last fall: MapLight Therapeutics and Evommune. Cooley advised both biotechs on their IPOs, although Segal was not involved in either. Speaking generally, Segal said using Section 8(a) to go public is not something a company would do when the government is open.
“It’s definitely a last resort tactic,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is doing it as the first option, but if the government continues to shut down, we’ll probably continue to see other businesses doing this. But I think it will be small numbers. If the government is open and functioning, people will do it as usual.”
At least one biotech company has joined the public markets during the current government shutdown. Polaryx Therapeutics went public on Monday through a direct listing, in which company insiders sell their shares directly to the public without involving underwriters. Going public in this manner still requires the SEC to approve the registration statement. The SEC gave the green light to Polaryx’s filing and issued a notice of effectiveness last week, before the closing.
Unlike a traditional initial public offering, a direct listing does not generate new money for a company. That means Polaryx still needs to find capital for its clinical trial plans. Polaryx’s lead drug candidate, PLX-200, is on track to enter a Phase 2 study in the first half of this year to test the drug in rare lysosomal storage disorders. According to Polaryx’s prospectus, the company’s cash position was $5.7 million at the end of the third quarter of 2025. The filing does not offer estimates of clinical trial costs, but states that Polyaryx expects its capital to last only through the third quarter of this year.
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