NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 2:26 PM ET — Regular session
- Vera Therapeutics shares fell about 3.4% in afternoon trading, underperforming the broader market.
- Biotech ETFs were lower, keeping pressure on high-volatility drug developers into year-end.
- Investors remain focused on the FDA review path for atacicept, Vera’s lead IgA nephropathy program.
Vera Therapeutics, Inc. shares slid 3.4% to $50.45 in afternoon trading on Tuesday, giving back some recent gains as biotech stocks softened late in the year.
The move matters now because Vera has become a bellwether “event-driven” biotech name, where day-to-day trading can swing sharply as investors calibrate risk around FDA timelines and competitive positioning in kidney disease.
Thin year-end liquidity can amplify those swings, and traders have been quick to trim exposure to smaller, higher-beta healthcare names when the sector loses momentum.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting released on Tuesday underscored how closely investors are watching the policy debate, a backdrop that can weigh on long-duration growth stocks such as biotech. 1
There were no new company announcements during the session that immediately explained the drop. Shares traded between $50.45 and $53.13.
The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF was down about 1.4% and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF fell about 1.1%, while the broad-market SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ were little changed.
Rival Travere Therapeutics, which sells an FDA-approved treatment for IgA nephropathy, fell about 3.4%, tracking the risk-off tone in kidney-focused biotech names.
Vera’s investment case centers on atacicept, an experimental drug for IgA nephropathy — a progressive autoimmune kidney disease — after the company said it submitted a biologics license application, or BLA, to the FDA under the agency’s accelerated approval pathway. A BLA is the application companies file to sell a biologic medicine in the United States. 2
“The submission of our first BLA marks an inflection point in our journey as a company,” Chief Executive Marshall Fordyce said in a statement. 3
Vera said the filing was supported by interim Phase 3 data showing a reduction in proteinuria — excess protein in urine, a common marker of kidney damage — a surrogate endpoint often used in accelerated approval filings. 4
The company also raised fresh capital this month, pricing a public offering of Class A common stock in early December, as investors looked ahead to potential commercialization spending tied to an approval push. 5
Competition in IgA nephropathy has tightened after the FDA approved Otsuka’s Voyxact for reducing proteinuria in adults with the disease, Reuters reported, setting a higher bar for new entrants and putting a brighter spotlight on confirmatory data that measures longer-term kidney function. 6
What investors are watching next is straightforward: any FDA update that clarifies the review timeline for atacicept and the next clinical catalysts that could support a broader label. Vera has said it expects initial results from its PIONEER Phase 2 basket trial in the fourth quarter of 2025 and sees the potential for FDA approval and a U.S. launch in 2026. 7
From a trading perspective, shares remain below their recent highs and above their year-to-date lows, leaving $50 as a near-term level investors will watch for support as 2025 trading winds down. The stock’s 52-week range is roughly $18.53 to $56.05, according to Investing.com data. 8
