Disappearing IPOs, building startups and closing deals: Views from an up-and-down year in biotech

For young biotechnology startups, 2022 was a challenging year.

Fewer than two dozen private drugmakers went public, marking a sharp retreat from 2021, when more than 100 did. The share prices for many of those biotechs already publicly traded, meanwhile, fell amid a broader market downturn that forced dozens of companies to trim their research plans or cut staff.