Radiopharmaceutical drug developer Aktis Oncology on Thursday said it raised $318 million from an initial public offering, the first for a biotechnology company in 2026.
Aktis priced 17.65 million shares at $18 each, more than what it planned to sell, according to an updated securities filing earlier this week. It upsized the round after Eli Lilly, which previously partnered with the cancer drugmaker, stepped in to purchase $100 million, or a third of the shares. Aktis will begin trading Friday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “AKTS.”
The company, which is based in Boston, is developing a twist on specialized cancer drugs that it says can hit tumor targets “outside the scope” of other radiopharmaceuticals.
AKY-1189, its most advanced prospect, is a “miniprotein radioconjugate” targeting Nectin-4, the same protein that Pfizer’s bladder cancer drug Padcev binds to. Aktis is studying what other cancers it could be used in, with Phase 1 study results expected in the first quarter of 2027.
A second experimental drug, dubbed AKY-2519, goes after solid tumors that express a protein called B7-H3. Tumors with high levels of B7-H3 have been hard to treat, responding poorly to other cancer therapies such as anti-PD1 drugs, according to Aktis. The collaboration with Lilly could yield additional radiopharmaceutical targets.
Prior to its IPO, Aktis banked $346 million in private funding to advance its pipeline of radiopharmaceuticals, including investments from MPM BioImpact, Vida Ventures and RA Capital.
Last year was a slow one for biotech companies looking to raise money on the public markets, with less than a dozen firms pricing IPOs, according to BioPharma Dive data. Only one, Ascentage Pharma, was a cancer drug developer.
But radiopharma companies overall have lured major pharmaceutical firms like Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb. and Novartis. The latter, in particular, saw major success with its radiopharmaceuticals Pluvicto and Lutathera, setting off a chain of acquisitions by other pharmas looking for more precise medicines to attack tumors.
Aktis’ IPO ranks as the sector’s third-largest since the start of 2024, only trailing offerings from Kyverna Therapeutics and CG Oncology.
