In This Article:
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter.
Eikon Therapeutics, a well-funded drug startup run by Merck & Co.’s former research chief, has raised one of the biggest venture rounds for a biotechnology company so far this year.
The company on Wednesday announced nearly $351 million in Series D financing from more than a dozen investment firms, among them Lux Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments. The round is the second-largest in 2025 among the nearly two dozen venture firms tracked by BioPharma Dive. Eikon has now secured about $1.1 billion in venture dollars since its inception in 2019.
Eikon was formed around a Nobel Prize-winning technology that helps scientists look at how proteins move inside of cells. The company debuted publicly in 2021 with Roger Perlmutter, Merck’s longtime head of research, as its CEO. Since then, it’s amassed a pipeline of more than 15 drug candidates for cancer, inflammatory conditions and neurological diseases. The ones now furthest along were acquired through dealmaking.
Eikon’s lead candidate, EIK1001, spurs anti-tumor activity by targeting a pair of so-called toll-like receptor proteins. Eikon acquired EIK1001 from its original developer, Seven and Eight Biopharmaceuticals, and has since brought it into late-stage testing. A Phase 3 trial is testing a combination of the drug and Merck’s Keytruda against Keytruda alone in frontline melanoma. A Phase 2 study in non-small cell lung cancer is underway as well.
Also in Eikon’s arsenal are two PARP inhibitors. One is meant to be more selective than similar, existing medicines, and is in early-stage testing for certain solid tumors. A second is designed to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and treat brain cancers. A Phase 1 trial should start later this year, Perlmutter said in a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January.
In a statement, Perlmutter said the funding would provide the resources needed to “build a fully-integrated, 21st-century biotechnology company” that leverages “decades of experience” as well as advanced computing and data sciences. In 2023, he told BioPharma Dive he expected the company’s pipeline to “continue to grow both organically and through strategic partnerships, largely asset acquisitions.”
Eikon’s latest funding adds to a trend of megarounds, or financings larger than $100 million, for biotechs. Such fundings have become more common over the last year or so, as investors preferred making fewer, but larger bets with many co-investors. “It seemed to be a ‘safety in numbers’ philosophy,” Jonathan Norris, a partner at HSBC Innovation Banking, wrote in a January report.