Eikon Therapeutics is heading to the Nasdaq this morning with an upsized $381 million IPO in a further sign of the renewed appeal of the public markets.
The oncology biotech will offer 21.2 million shares for the IPO—above the 17.6 million shares the company had expected to offer when it sketched out its plans last week. Those shares will be priced at $18 apiece, at the upper end of the $16 to $18 range it had predicted.
The IPO should bring in gross proceeds of $381 million, above the $273.5 million net proceeds Eikon had been banking on last week. This windfall could rise by a further $57.2 million should underwriters fully take up their 30-day option of buying an additional 3.2 million shares at the same price.
At $381 million, Eikon looks set to be the largest biotech IPO since 2024, overtaking Aktis Oncology’s $318 million offering last month.
The California-based company has already set out its plans for spending the proceeds, with the biggest priority labeled as the clinical development of EIK1001. The toll-like receptor 7 and 8 agonist immune modulator, which Eikon acquired from Seven and Eight Biopharmaceuticals, is currently being tested in a phase 2/3 trial in combination with Keytruda for advanced melanoma and a phase 2/3 study for non-small cell lung cancer.
Behind EIK1001 is a pair of PARP1 inhibitors, dubbed EIK1003 and EIK1004, which Eikon licensed from Chinese biotech Impact Therapeutics. These candidates are being trialed in phase 1/2 studies for ovarian, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers, with EIK1004 also being assessed against brain metastases and primary brain malignancies due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.
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The fourth clinical candidate is an in-house WRN helicase inhibitor called EIK1005, which is in phase 1/2 development for solid tumors.
Eikon announced itself in 2021 with former Merck & Co. exec Roger Perlmutter, M.D., Ph.D., at the helm and quickly established itself as an energetic fundraiser. The biotech corralled $517 million in 2022, $106 million in 2023 and $350 million in February 2025.
Eikon will be the second biotech working on new drugs to go public in 2026. The company’s leadership will likely be hoping to enjoy similar success to Aktis—the radiopharmaceutical developer’s shares continued to trade this week above their $18 debut price.
So far this year, eye-focused SpyGlass Pharma and Belgian immunology biotech Agomab Therapeutics have also announced IPO plans.
The string of announcements in recent weeks give credence to the predictions made by industry observers to Fierce last year that the IPO window could finally be reopening in 2026.
