AI drug discovery specialist Generate Biomedicines has raised $400 million in the year’s largest initial public offering to date for a biotechnology firm.
The company, which was launched in 2018 by prominent startup creator Flagship Pioneering, said Thursday it sold 25 million at $16 each, on par with expectations it outlined in a federal filing. Shares of Generate will begin trading Friday under the ticker symbol “GENB.”
Since its inception, the company has pocketed more than $800 million in venture capital backing and about $110 million in payments from collaborations with Amgen and Novartis. Its main focus is a would-be competitor to the asthma drug Tezspire. Generate’s molecule, dubbed GB-0895, is an AI-designed drug that entered a large clinical study in January.
Like Tezspire, Generate’s drug targets a cytokine called TSLP that’s implicated in the development of asthma. But the company says its candidate, which is administered once every six months, is more convenient for patients compared to other asthma treatments. Two Phase 3 studies began in December and are expected to be fully enrolled by the first half of 2028.
GB-0895 is in early-stage testing in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, too. Results are anticipated this year. Generate’s pipeline also includes two cancer therapies that could soon enter the clinic.
Previously, the company had been testing a COVID-19 drug codenamed GB-0669, but it shelved the treatment in 2025 amid waning interest for coronavirus therapies. Generate also laid off dozens of employees that year.
Including Generate’s offering, five biotechs have now banked nearly $1.4 billion in total IPO proceeds in February, making it the most active month for new stock offerings in more than a year, according to BioPharma Dive data. All five companies have lead programs in Phase 2 or 3 testing, a reflection of investor enthusiasm for drugs that have already shown potential in the clinic.
One other drugmaker, Aktis Oncology, priced a $318 million offering in January.
Analysts and investors speculate that biopharma IPOs are likely to rebound in 2026, bouncing back from a multiyear slog that resulted in the lowest annual rate of new offerings — just 11 — in 2025. So far, the pace of offerings in 2026 is similar to what's been seen last few years. But the $284 million average size of those stock sales is substantially larger, data show.
