Here’s What Lifted Verona Pharma (VRNA) in Q2

PGIM, an investment management company, released its “PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Equities in the second quarter of 2025 experienced significant volatility, as the steep sell-off that initiated at the beginning of the quarter ultimately led to a strong recovery. The S&P 1500 Health Care Index declined 6.9% in the second quarter, underperforming the S&P 500’s 10.9% return. Health care providers & services, life sciences tools & services, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals underperformed the Index in the quarter. While healthcare technology and medtech gained in the quarter. In June, the S&P 1500 Health Care Index (the Index) gained 1.9%, lagging the S&P 500, which advanced 5.1%. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund highlighted stocks such as Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA). Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) is a biopharmaceutical company. The one-month return of Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) was 0.48%, and its shares gained 284.91% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 24, 2025, Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) stock closed at $106.39 per share, with a market capitalization of $9.041 billion.

Baron Growth Fund stated the following regarding Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) is a commercial stage biotech that developed and launched Ohtuvayre, a nebulized therapy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This was the first novel mechanism for COPD in decades. This is an incredibly large market, with ~8.6 million patients in the U.S. on maintenance COPD therapy. The main established major branded therapies are multibillion drugs. Physician feedback ahead of the launch was incredibly positive and has remained so as physicians gained real world experience with Ohtuvayre. The launch has been incredibly strong and we expect it to remain so. We expect Ohtuvayre to become a main player in COPD and be a multibillion-dollar product at peak. On July 7th, Merck & Co. Announced they had agreed to pay $10 billion ($107/share) to buy Verona—a successful exit for our investment.”

Verona Pharma (VRNA) Jumps 125% YTD; Merck $10-Billion Acquisition Bolsters Sentiment

Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 59 hedge fund portfolios held Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) at the end of the second quarter, which was 51 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) and shared ClearBridge Small Cap Strategy’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.