After a year of regulatory uncertainty and weak biotech sentiment, medical-device companies are showing signs of life in the IPO market — drawing strong investor demand and offering a glimmer of hope for the broader life sciences sector.

Investor appetite returns for commercial-stage medtech IPOs

Shoulder Innovations Inc., a Michigan-based maker of shoulder-surgery implants, is set to price its IPO late Wednesday, targeting a raise of up to $105 million. Demand has reportedly exceeded supply multiple times over, with major mutual funds submitting anchor orders, according to Bloomberg.

This comes just one week after the IPO of Carlsmed Inc., which makes spinal-surgery implants. Though Carlsmed’s shares fell 3.3% on their debut, it still marked a significant step forward in a sector that has struggled for months.

“Investors are comfortable looking at those and saying some of these stories have been de-risked,” said Seth Rubin, head of global equity capital markets at Stifel Financial Corp. “We’re getting an opportunity to buy high-growth companies with less risk.”

IPO market has been brutal for health care — but medtech might be different

In 2025 so far, only 11 health-care companies have gone public in the US with offerings of at least $50 million, totaling just $2.7 billion in proceeds — a sharp drop from the $5.8 billion raised across 18 deals in the same period last year.

Biotech, in particular, remains weak:

  • Only 4 biotech IPOs have been completed this year.
  • There were 10 biotech listings in the same timeframe in 2024.

Meanwhile, Caris Life Sciences Inc., an AI-powered precision medicine company, completed the largest health-care IPO of 2025, raising $568.2 million in May.

Why medtech is outperforming biotech in IPO interest

Medtech firms, unlike early-stage biotech companies, are generally seen as less risky:

  • Most already have FDA-approved products on the market.
  • Many are generating revenue and are further along in their growth cycles.
  • They face less regulatory uncertainty, especially compared to small-cap biotech.

This lower-risk profile is especially attractive in a climate where biotech IPOs are heavily dependent on clinical trial results, and where investor trust has been shaken by regulatory shake-ups.

One such shake-up came from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose changes at the FDA reportedly unnerved many health-care investors earlier this year.

“For the same reasons that the biotech market has been difficult, medtech companies with significant clinical or go-to-market risk will still be challenged,” Rubin noted. “But the cohort we’re seeing now is later stage, and that’s very attractive.”

Medtech momentum building — but not without risk

Earlier medtech IPOs in the past 12 months show mixed results:

  • Kestra Medical Technologies Ltd. (cardiac monitoring) went public in March 2025.
  • Beta Bionics Inc. (diabetes-focused) listed in January 2025.
  • Ceribell Inc. (seizure detection) debuted in October 2024.

All three saw initial day-one gains, but now trade below their IPO prices, highlighting the long-term volatility even within medtech.

Outlook: cautious optimism for the rest of 2025

Shoulder Innovations could become a bellwether for the rest of the year. If its pricing is strong and post-IPO performance holds, analysts expect a selective but steady pipeline of similar commercial-stage health-tech listings to follow.

The real question: will this tentative medtech rally spark a broader recovery across life sciences IPOs? Or will biotech remain sidelined while investors stick to safer, revenue-generating names?

Source: Medtech IPOs Spur Talk of Broader US Health-Care Listing Revival – Bloomberg

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

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