--- title: 'Life Sciences Daily Summary: What Happened on October 25, 2026' headline: Lycia raises $317.5 million in IPO as cancer data lead ESMO’s clinical news description: The financing will fund Lycia’s protein-degrading drug candidates, while ESMO findings covered prostate and pancreatic cancer treatments. url: https://thebench.bio/news/summaries/2026-10-25 topic: all date: '2026-10-25' covers: - '2026-10-25' date_published: '2026-10-26T00:03:36Z' date_modified: '2026-10-26T00:03:36Z' tags: - Funding - Industry sources: 2 publisher: TheBench.Bio --- # Life Sciences Daily Summary: What Happened on October 25, 2026 **Lycia raises $317.5 million in IPO as cancer data lead ESMO’s clinical news** The financing will fund Lycia’s protein-degrading drug candidates, while ESMO findings covered prostate and pancreatic cancer treatments. ## Today in brief Lycia Therapeutics brought in $317.5 million through an upsized Nasdaq IPO to develop candidates for food allergy and Graves’ disease. [1] Preliminary Phase 1 data showed an average maximum 96% reduction in immunoglobulin E, or IgE, with its lead food-allergy candidate, LCA-0061, the company said. [1] At the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting, darolutamide lowered the risk of metastasis or death by 58% in a prostate cancer trial, while long-term findings associated abiraterone with longer survival in another study. [2] In pancreatic cancer, 22 evaluable patients treated with Tango Therapeutics’ combination had an 82% response rate, and the company expects to start a Phase III trial in 2027. [2] ## Lycia raises $317.5 million to advance three drug candidates Lycia raised $317.5 million by selling 17.64 million shares at $18 each, after adding more than 2.9 million shares to its IPO. [1] Shares reached $36.49 and closed their first trading day at $30, more than 66% above the offering price. [1] Lycia’s lead candidate, LCA-0061, is in Phase 1 testing for food allergy and is designed to degrade IgE, an antibody involved in allergic reactions. [1] Among participants with elevated IgE, preliminary results showed an average maximum reduction of 96% from baseline. Lycia said most participants maintained reductions above 95% 28 days after dosing. [1] Lycia expects to report more Phase 1 results for LCA-0061 in 2027 and plans to begin a Phase 1 study of LCA-0062 next year. [1] Its third candidate, LCA-0321, is in Phase 1 testing for Graves’ disease, with preliminary results expected next year. [1] Lycia plans to use IPO proceeds to advance all three candidates through Phase 2 testing. The company estimates its capital will last into the second half of 2029. [1] ## ESMO data span prostate cancer survival and pancreatic cancer responses In the DASL-HiCaP prostate cancer trial, adding darolutamide to the specified treatments reduced the risk of metastasis or death by 58% versus placebo. [2] After a median 3.8 years of follow-up, four-year metastasis-free survival was 95% with darolutamide and 88% with placebo. The hazard ratio was 0.42. [2] Darolutamide also lowered the risk of prostate-specific antigen progression by 53%. [2] After almost eight years of follow-up in the 1,173-participant PEACE-1 trial, adding abiraterone to standard care was associated with a 25% lower risk of death and median survival of 6.1 years, versus 4.6 years without abiraterone. [2] Among patients with high-volume disease, median survival was 4.6 years with triplet treatment and 3.5 years with doublet treatment. Eight-year survival was 38% and 20%, respectively. [2] For low-volume disease, median survival was 7.8 years with triplet treatment and 6.2 years with doublet treatment, but that difference was not statistically significant on its own. [2] In a Phase 1 study of Tango Therapeutics’ vopimetostat and Rasonque combination for pancreatic cancer, 22 evaluable patients had an 82% response rate and an 88% nine-month progression-free survival rate. [2] Median progression-free survival had not been reached at the data cutoff. Tango expects to start a registrational Phase III study in the first half of 2027. [2] ## The day in numbers - **$317.5 million**: Lycia’s IPO proceeds [1] - **96%**: Average maximum IgE reduction from baseline in Lycia’s preliminary Phase 1 results [1] - **58%**: Reduction in the risk of metastasis or death with darolutamide in DASL-HiCaP [2] - **13.2 vs. 6.7 months**: Median overall survival with daraxonrasib versus standard treatment in RASolute 302 [2] ## Sources 1. [Lycia Lands a $317M IPO for Inflammation Drugs Based on Nobel Prize-Winning Science](), MedCity News, 2026-10-25 2. [ESMO26: Clinical progress shifts a historically difficult pancreatic cancer landscape](), Clinical Trials Arena, 2026-10-25 --- TheBench.Bio wrote this from the reporting cited above, with a language model drafting and editing. [1]: [2]: