Biotech's red-hot chili pepper IPO

Biotech's once-verdant IPO market has recently showed signs of decay, with the last two big debuts failing to pop the way their investors surely hoped. And next week brings us another chance to test the waters.

Centrexion, led by former Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, is looking to raise $92 million in an IPO next week. That'll help it push forward a pipeline of treatments for pain, the most advanced of which takes its inspiration from the science behind capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers spicy.

The company is expected to price somewhere between $14 and $16 per share. If Centrexion hits the end of that range and then trades up, it'll help emboldened other IPO hopefuls. If, like its recent predecessors, the company takes a valuation haircut and then struggles on Day One, biotech's narrative going into the winter is unlikely to improve.