Despite progress made in cancer immunotherapy, some patients don’t respond to these treatments or they stop responding after a period of time. Eikon Therapeutics’ lead drug candidate could address these limitations. This program is in clinical testing in two common types of cancer and Eikon has raised $381 million in IPO cash to support this drug and others in its pipeline.
Late Wednesday, Eikon priced its offering of 21.2 million shares at $18 apiece, up from the 17.6 million shares the company initially planned to offer in the range of $16 to $18 each. Those shares began trading on the Nasdaq Thursday under the stock symbol “EIKN.” Eikon’s stock market debut builds on growing biotech IPO momentum. Aktis Oncology had the first biotech IPO of the year in January. Veradermics began trading as a public company Wednesday. All three companies were able to upsize their deals.
Millbrae, California-based Eikon discovers and develops drugs using proprietary technology that enables visualization and analysis of proteins. But the company’s most advanced programs came from business deals. Lead program EIK1001 was licensed from Seven and Eight Biopharmaceuticals in 2023. This small molecule is a dual agonist of toll-like receptors 7 and 8 (TLR 7/8), an approach intended to activate both innate and adaptive immune responses to cancer.
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The use of TLR agonists to treat cancer has been limited by systemic toxicity, Eikon said in its IPO filing. One way to avoid that problem is by administering the therapy directly into tumors. But Eikon said this approach been ineffective, perhaps due to the failure to activate the innate immune system in secondary lymphoid tissues, such as immune cells in the lymph nodes and spleen. Eikon said it has identified a dose and schedule to allow for systemic administration of EIK1001, enabling the therapy to reach these tissues.
A Phase 2 study is ongoing, testing EIK1001 in combination with the Merck checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda and chemotherapy as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Preliminary data show responses and reduction in tumor sizes. Eikon plans to submit data from this trial for presentation at a medical meeting in the second half of this year.
A separate Phase 2/3 registrational trial is underway testing EIK1001 in combination with Keytruda in advanced melanoma. Eikon expects the first interim analysis from this study in the second half of 2026, after which it plans to select the optimal dose. Eikon is also proceeding with a clinical trial designed to evaluate EIK1001 in stage 4 NSCLC. This global Phase 2/3 registrational study will test the study drug in combination with Keytruda and chemotherapy. Eikon expects to dose the first patient in the second half of this year. Eikon says its lead drug candidate could find broader use.
“We also believe that the design of EIK1001 to activate innate and adaptive immune anti-tumor responses creates the potential to explore additional indications, including both highly immunogenic tumors, which have been shown to be susceptible to immunotherapy, and moderately and low immunogenic tumors, where current immune therapies have demonstrated little to no activity,” the company said in the IPO filing.
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The Eikon pipeline includes two PARP inhibitors, EIK1003 and EIK1004. These drugs, both licensed from Impact Therapeutics, are selective to PARP1, sparing PARP2. This selectivity could have a safety advantage over currently available PARP inhibitors that come with a risk of blood complications that may come from inhibiting PARP2. In the filing, Eikon says it believes the selectivity of its PARP inhibitors may enable combinations with chemotherapy in earlier lines of treatment as well as sustained therapeutic dosing during maintenance treatment. A Phase 1 dose-escalation study is underway for EIK1003 as a monotherapy for ovarian, breast, and prostate cancers.
Meanwhile, a global Phase 1/2 study is underway testing EIK1004 in ovarian, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. Eikon believes this drug’s ability to penetrate the central nervous system could enable treatment of patients with advanced solid tumors, with or without brain metastases. The company believes this drug also has potential applications treating primary brain cancers.
Eikon’s most advanced internally discovered program is EIK1005, an inhibitor of WRN helicase, an enzyme that plays a role in DNA damage repair. The company believes this drug could be used to treat high microsatellite instability tumors, as a monotherapy or in combination with immunotherapy. A Phase 1/2 study is underway enrolling patients with advanced solid tumors.
Eikon was founded in 2019 and emerged from stealth in 2021, revealing $148 million in funding and former Merck executive Roger Perlmutter as its CEO. Prior to the IPO, Eikon had raised more than $1.1 billion; its most recent financing was a $350.7 million Series D round nearly a year ago.
As of the end of 2025, Eikon reported its cash position was $336 million. According to the filing, Eikon plans to spend about $100 million to continue clinical development of lead program EIK1001 in advanced melanoma and NSCLC. Another $60 million is earmarked for completing a Phase 1/2 test of EIK1003. Capital is also budgeted for early clinical development of EIK1004 and EIK1005.
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