Part one: the COVID boom, then a long winter. During COVID, biotech funding shot up to $48.2 billion in one quarter (2Q20). Then it slid downhill for two years as things cooled off. By late 2022, funding had dropped all the way to $10.9 billion a quarter. People started calling this stretch the "biotech winter."

Part two: a fake spring. In January 2024, investors suddenly got excited about biotech again. Everyone who had been waiting to raise money for two years tried to do it at the same time. Funding jumped to $47.2 billion in one quarter, almost as high as the COVID peak. It wasn't one giant deal. It was just a lot of companies rushing through the door at once. READ MORE