LB Pharma is pursuing a $350 million capital raise to advance its schizophrenia candidate, LB-102, amid challenging biotech market conditions. CEO Heather Turner is leveraging her experience from a previous successful IPO and M&A process to navigate this funding effort.
LB Pharma needed $350 million to advance a promising schizophrenia candidate at a time when the biotech markets were locked up tight. Fortunately, it wasn’t CEO Heather Turner’s first rodeo. But this was not Turner’s first rodeo. She successfully ran a dual-track IPO and M&A process with her previous biotech Carmot Therapeutics, which ultimately ended in Roche’s $3.1 billion takeover in December 2023. As the LB crew worked on a capital raise after the January 2025 data release, Turner and her fellow executives began to see there might be a crack in the IPO window that had been shut tight for seven months. Talks with the FDA were going well and LB believed that the Phase 2 trial, which had been designed to be registrational, could be paired with just one late-stage test to support a regulatory filing for LB-102. “We talked to the bank and luckily, the bank didn’t throw up on the idea,” Turner said. “That gave me quite a bit of confidence that we might have some partnerships that would really try to get it done.” LB also sees opportunities for LB-102 as an adjunctive in major depressive disorder, in Alzheimer’s disease psychosis and for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Turner said she’s glad that her biotech’s success helped show the industry what some solid mid-stage clinical data can do. Last year began with a flurry of IPOs, spurring optimism that the markets might finally be opening up after a prolonged downturn. IPO listings peaked following the pandemic sugar rush in 2021, with many companies going out before producing any clinical data.
Original title: “How LB Rode the Brutal Capital Markets to One of 2025’s Most Successful IPOs - BioSpace”