What's Next in Biotech: The Future of Biopharma Capital Markets and M&A: Trends, Risks, and Opportunities

In this third installment of the series, Tim Ehrlich, chair of Gunderson Dettmer’s Life Sciences Group, interviewed Jefferies vice chairman of Global Healthcare Investment Banking Phil Ross about how the post-2019–2021 capital formation boom reshaped the biotech landscape and what emerging growth companies should expect from the next phase of the market cycle.

They discussed why the last several years have been challenging for early-stage and preclinical biotechs, how shifting interest rates and capital rotation affected access to public and private funding, and what lessons management teams and investors learned about timing IPOs, follow-on financings, and productivity milestones.

The conversation also looks forward to where capital is flowing now, how strategic M&A fits into companies’ funding and exit strategies, and how CEOs, CFOs, and COOs can position their platforms to seize new opportunities and manage risk as we head into the second half of 2026.