Biotech Company That Licensed Multiple Molecules from China and Raised $350M in 2025 Announces Major Layoffs

On February 26, 2025, Eikon Therapeutics, a startup based in Hayward, California, completed a $350.7 million Series D financing round. The funding is intended to support the Phase 3 clinical trial of candidate drug EIK1001 (a TLR7/8 agonist licensed from Bold Biologics) for advanced melanoma, as well as to advance other R&D pipelines. Investors in this round included: Lux Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, AME Cloud Ventures, The Column Group, E15 VC, Foresite Capital, General Catalyst, Soros Capital, StepStone Group, T. Rowe Price Associates, UC Investments, and existing shareholders.

Previously, the company raised $518 million in a Series B round in 2022 and $106 million in a Series C round in 2023.

Founded in 2019, Eikon Therapeutics' co-founder and CEO is Roger Perlmutter, the former President of Merck Research Laboratories (MSD). To date, the company has raised over $1.1 billion. Eikon is committed to advancing breakthrough therapeutics through the integration of engineering and science. Its proprietary technology platform is based on Nobel Prize-winning super-resolution microscopy, advanced engineering, and high-performance computing tools, allowing real-time observation of protein molecules moving inside living cells. The goal is to bring clinically meaningful new drugs to patients with serious illnesses.

According to PharmaLinked monitoring, as of the end of February, the company had approximately 350 employees and was projected to reach 460 employees by 2026. At the time, it was described as a "massive biotech."

However, on May 21, 2025, the company announced it would lay off 15% of its workforce, affecting multiple departments and around 60 employees. The company attributed the decision to external and uncontrollable factors, particularly a reduction in U.S. government research funding. Some of the company’s operations rely on collaborations and research progress with the U.S. academic sector.

The last layoff occurred in October 2023, when the company stated it was aiming to improve efficiency.

In June 2023, China's Impact Therapeutics and Eikon Therapeutics announced an exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement for IMP1734 and other selective PARP1 inhibitors. Under the agreement, Eikon obtained exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize the compounds outside of Greater China.

IMP1734 is also known as EIK1003.

EIK1004 is a selective PARP1 inhibitor capable of penetrating the central nervous system.

The WRN inhibitor candidate is designated as EIK1005. Additionally, two androgen receptor antagonists/AR-targeting drugs are in early-stage research.

IMP1734, developed independently by Impact Therapeutics, is a highly selective PARP1 inhibitor. It reportedly shows strong enzymatic inhibition of PARP1 and relatively low inhibition of PARP2. Previously, it was recruiting patients in China for the following conditions:

1. Recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, or primary peritoneal cancer;
2. Advanced, recurrent, metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer;
3. Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) (adenocarcinoma only).