, Columnist
Biotech's IPO Uptick Is Nothing to Fear
Unlike 2015, the market is recovering, but not frothy.
A TV cameraman shoots video through the windows of the Nasdaq offices in Times Square on June 24, 2016 in New York.
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The biotech IPO market is unusual.
It can take a decade to develop a drug, so these companies demand long leashes and heroic tolerance for losses. Instead of valuing a business, IPO investors often must value a medicine or idea years away from the market. Given all the guesswork and risk involved, sentiment plays an outsize role in the ability of biotechs to go public.