aibioAktis Oncology prices upsized IPO at $18, raising about $318 million
The radiopharmaceutical developer sold 17.65 million shares on the Nasdaq, the first U.S. biotech IPO of 2026, after raising its offering size.
Key facts
- Companies
- Aktis Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY), Merck KGaA (XETR: MRK)
- News type
- Financings
- Primary source
- Aktis Oncology (GlobeNewswire)
Aktis Oncology, a Boston company that makes targeted radiopharmaceuticals, priced its upsized initial public offering on Jan. 8, 2026. It sold 17,650,000 shares at $18.00 each, for expected gross proceeds of about $318.0 million. Shares were set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Jan. 9 under the ticker AKTS.
Fierce Biotech called it the first biotech IPO of 2026. The deal was upsized from a planned 11.8 million shares, and the $18 price sat at the top of a $16 to $18 range.
What happened
The company set terms early in the week and then raised the share count before pricing. According to Fierce, the offering grew from 11.8 million to 17.6 million shares. Reuters reported that Aktis was targeting a valuation of up to $945.4 million in the IPO.
All of the shares were sold by the company, not by existing holders. The offering was expected to close on Jan. 12. A later closing announcement says the underwriters exercised their option to buy additional shares in full.
Deal terms
The underwriters received a 30-day option to buy up to 2,647,500 more shares at $18, less discounts and commissions, according to the pricing release. Gross proceeds of $318.0 million exclude that option. J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities, Leerink Partners and TD Cowen were the joint book-running managers. The registration statement on Form S-1 was declared effective on Jan. 8.
Fierce put the size in context: the raise is larger than the 2025 IPOs of Metsera ($275 million), LB Pharmaceuticals ($285 million) and MapLight Therapeutics ($250 million).
Why it matters
Aktis is a clinical-stage company. Its lead program, Ac-AKY-1189, is a miniprotein radiopharmaceutical aimed at Nectin-4 in a U.S. phase 1b study, and a second, Ac-AKY-2519, targets B7-H3. Fierce, citing the company's filing, said Aktis planned to spend $140 million to $150 million of the proceeds on the Nectin-4 program and $70 million to $80 million on the B7-H3 program. Preliminary dose-escalation results for the lead program are expected in the first quarter of 2027, according to Fierce.
The company argues that imaging isotopes attached to its drugs can identify patients likely to benefit. Fierce noted that Aktis contrasts this with Padcev, the Nectin-4 antibody-drug conjugate from Pfizer and Astellas, which had $1.9 billion in sales in 2024. Aktis says Padcev's reach beyond urothelial cancer is limited because it needs a companion diagnostic.
Aktis raised a $175 million Series B last year with participation from Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck's MRL Ventures Fund and earlier backer Eli Lilly, per the same Fierce report. It had $246.2 million in cash at the end of September 2025, and Fierce said the IPO proceeds are expected to fund operations into the first half of 2028.
What it means for investors
A $318 million raise for a company with no data past phase 1 shows that public investors were willing to fund early-stage radiopharmaceuticals in January 2026. The demand was strong enough that the company sold about 50% more shares than first planned. That is a read on appetite, not on the science. (Fierce Biotech)
The risks are the usual ones for this stage. The lead program has no efficacy readout yet, and the first look at dose escalation is more than a year away. Published industry data show that 52.0% of programs move from phase I to phase II and 28.9% move from phase II to phase III (BIO, Informa and QLS, 2011 to 2020). Radiopharmaceutical supply and manufacturing also add operating risk that a conventional drug does not carry.
The cash runway into the first half of 2028 covers the planned readout, which gives the company room before it needs to raise again. How the stock trades after listing is a separate question from how the drugs perform. (Fierce Biotech)
What to watch
The next dated milestone is the first-quarter 2027 dose-escalation update for Ac-AKY-1189. Before then, watch whether other private biotechs file to list, since Fierce reported that no others had confirmed plans when Aktis priced.