Eikon Therapeutics is no stranger to eye-popping funding rounds, and the cancer-focused biotech has continued this trend with a $350.7 million series D to fuel its various clinical trials.
California-based Eikon emerged publicly in 2021 with a stated goal to apply live-cell super-resolution microscopy to drug discovery. Headed up by former Merck & Co. EVP Roger Perlmutter, M.D., Ph.D., the biotech has secured a series of megarounds since then, with the most ambitious being a $517 million series B in 2022.
Today’s series D, which was led by Eikon’s existing investors, brings the company’s total raised revenue to over $1.1 billion. Some of this money was already deployed a few years ago to buy four clinical-stage assets, although financial terms were never disclosed.
One of these programs, a toll-like receptor 7 and 8 agonist immune modulator acquired from Seven and Eight Biopharma, now leads Eikon’s clinical pipeline. The asset, renamed EIK1001, is currently in a phase 3 trial for advanced melanoma.
Next in line is EIK1003, a highly selective PARP1 inhibitor acquired from China-based IMPACT Therapeutics that is in a phase 1 trial in patients with breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers. Meanwhile, Eikon is about to enter a central nervous system-penetrant PARP1-selective inhibitor licensed from IMPACT into phase 1 studies for brain cancers.
Behind those are a pair of androgen receptor antagonists and an internally developed WRN inhibitor that the biotech hopes could be aimed at MSI-high and other DNA repair–deficient cancers.
To fund these clinical explorations, Eikon sourced series D funding from the likes of Lux Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, AME Cloud Ventures, The Column Group, E15 VC, Foresite Capital, General Catalyst and Soros Capital, to name a few.
“With clinical studies now operating in 28 countries across five continents, we are accelerating the development of much-needed therapies while continuing to expand our research and development capabilities,” Perlmutter said in the Feb. 26 release.
“This financing provides the resources necessary to build a fully integrated, 21st-century biotechnology company that leverages advanced computing, data sciences and decades of experience in bringing innovative medicines to patients,” the CEO added.