Taking A Life Science Company Public During A Pandemic

If I said, “Biotech IPOs were hot last year,” it could be construed as one of the biggest understatements of all time. This is because in 2020, biotech IPOs shattered all records. Further, the positive biopharma IPO trend seems to be continuing for 2021, at least thus far anyway. As such, Life Science Leader thought it worthwhile to speak with three life science executives about their varied experiences of going public in the middle of a pandemic. Because while taking a company public may not be the dream of every entrepreneur, it is for many in life sciences, as the high cost of developing therapeutics remains. In this executive virtual roundtable (EVR), perspectives are provided by Tom Frohlich, CBO, Chinook Therapeutics (a company that went public via a merger); David Perry, chairman and cofounder, Better Therapeutics (a company going public via a SPAC); and Marcio Souza, CEO, Praxis Precision Medicines (a company that went public via a virtual IPO).