Rubius Therapeutics went public in 2018 at a $2 billion valuation — the largest biotech stock market debut at that time. On Wednesday, the company — battered down to a market value of $15 million — said it was shutting down and liquidating all of its remaining assets.
The official end of Rubius marks one of biotech’s highest-profile flameouts. It’s also the unsurprising result of a particularly ignominious biotech financing trend: venture capitalists and their investment bankers foisting ultra-risky startups with zero clinical trial data onto the public markets.