There will be biotech IPOs in 2019 after all

A painful downturn gave way to widespread worries and a government shutdown, but it finally happened: A biotech company went public in 2019.

Alector, developing immunological therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, priced in the middle of its range and raised $176 million in the process. The company’s stock traded about 5 percent on its first day out. That might have been disappointing, say, last summer, but when you consider that the biotech IPO immediately preceding Alector’s collapsed out the gate, maybe it’s not such a bad return.

Hours later, Gossamer Bio priced its offering according to plan and will start trading today. In the wings are Harpoon Therapeutics, TCR2 Therapeutics, and Stealth Biotherapeutics, each hoping that Alector’s feat means biotech can return to normalcy in 2019 after an icy winter.