By Paul R. La Monica
Veradermics, a small biotechnology company looking to develop drugs for hair loss, enjoyed a stunning debut on Wall Street Wednesday. And that's no bald-faced lie. (Sorry. Not sorry.) Shares of Veradermics, which priced its offering at $17, opened at $33 and quickly surged as high as $40.01, a more than 135% pop, before pulling back ever so slightly.
But are investors getting a-"head" of themselves? Veradermics has no revenue yet, let alone earnings. The company describes itself as an early-stage firm that is spending heavily to develop new products. As such, the company posted a net loss of $48.1 million in the first nine months of 2025, mainly due to research-and-development expenses of $43.9 million. In 2024, Veradermics lost $26.5 million.
The company is working on a medication called VDPHL01, which is an oral, non-hormonal treatment for pattern hair loss for both men and women. Veradermics points out in its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it does not have the necessary regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin selling the medication just yet.
The medication is in Phase 3 clinical trials, which could mean that it is relatively close to the next step in the drug-approval process. But it's not clear how long it will take for these trials to be completed. Getting approval is critical, given that Veradermics has no other source of sales or earnings at this point.
"Our success will depend on the approval and successful commercialization of VDPHL01, which is our lead product candidate. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval for, and successfully commercialize, VDPHL01, or any of our other current or future product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed," the company said in its IPO filing.
Veradermics raised $256 million in its IPO and is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MANE (Get it? For what it's worth, the ticker symbol HAIR is currently available). The company sold 15.1 million shares, up from an original plan of 13.4 million shares. The $17 IPO price was also above the initial range of $14 to $16.
Veradermics is one of four biotechs set to go public this week, in a busy week for IPOs overall.
Bob's Discount Furniture and organic baby food maker Once Upon a Farm will test investors' appetite for consumer stocks while electrical-equipment maker Forgent Power Solutions and ad-tech firm Liftoff Mobile both have AI as part of their narrative. Forgent is a big provider of equipment to data centers while Liftoff's Cortex machine learning-based AI model for mobile advertising is a big source of its revenue.
It's been a mixed bag for IPOs so far this year, though. While Veradermics and construction-equipment rental company EquipmentShare.com have enjoyed solid showings, shares of crypto firm BitGo Holdings, satellite maker York Space Systems, Brazilian fintech PicPay Holdings, and online insurer Ethos Technologies have all fallen below their IPO prices. Several IPOs from last year, including design-software firm Figma, StubHub Holdings, and Gemini Space Station, have tumbled as well.
Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com
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February 04, 2026 16:12 ET (21:12 GMT)
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