Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals Announces Completion of Merger With Ikena Oncology & Concurrent Private Placement of $75 Million

Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals recently announced the completion of its previously announced merger with Ikena Oncology, Inc. The combined company will operate under the name ImageneBio, Inc. and will trade on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol IMA beginning at market open on July 28, 2025.

Concurrent with the closing of the merger, Inmagene and Ikena completed a $75-million private placement with a syndicate of existing and new investors including Deep Track Capital, Foresite Capital, RTW Investments, and existing Ikena investors such as BVF Partners L.P., Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Omega Funds, and OrbiMed. The combined company will be led by Kristin Yarema, PhD, as its Chief Executive Officer, as announced earlier this week.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this transaction and are well-positioned to advance IMG-007 into late-stage development. OX40 inhibition is a promising approach that may have the potential to treat a broad range of immunological and inflammatory diseases where patients continue to wait for more and novel treatment options. We are excited about the emerging profile of IMG-007, which we believe will prove to be differentiated, and we look forward to executing our development plan in atopic dermatitis and potentially initiating studies in additional indications,” commented Dr. Kristin Yarema.

Additionally, in connection with the completion of the transaction and as recently approved by Ikena’s shareholders, Ikena implemented a reverse split of its common stock at a ratio of 1-for-12 shares. Following the reverse stock split and based on the final exchange ratio of approximately 0.003051 shares of Ikena common stock for each Inmagene share, immediately following the closing of the merger, the legacy equity holders of Inmagene owned approximately 55.0% of the combined company’s outstanding common stock and the legacy equity holders of Ikena owned approximately 45% of the combined company’s outstanding common stock, in each case, on a fully diluted basis. Following the consummation of the concurrent private placement, the legacy equity holders of Inmagene owned approximately 43.1% of the combined company’s outstanding common stock, the legacy equity holders of Ikena owned approximately 35.3% of the combined company’s outstanding common stock, and the investors in the concurrent financing owned approximately 21.6% of the combined company’s outstanding common stock, in each case, on a fully diluted basis. Following the reverse stock split, the closing of both the merger and concurrent financing, ImageneBio will have approximately 11.6 million shares of common stock outstanding. ImageneBio’s shares are expected to begin trading on Nasdaq at market open on July 28, 2025 under the ticker symbol IMA and new CUSIP number, 45175G 207.

Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal counsel to Ikena, and Cooley LLP served as legal counsel to Inmagene. Leerink Partners LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Ikena. Evercore served as exclusive financial advisor to Inmagene.

ImageneBio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that boldly imagines a world where patients can be free from the burden of grievous immunological/autoimmune and inflammatory (I&I) diseases. Imagene’s purpose is to globally develop new medicines with differentiated profiles that can effectively control and change the course of I&I diseases for affected patients, treat their symptoms, and improve quality of life. The company’s lead asset IMG-007, a nondepleting anti-OX40 monoclonal antibody, recently completed Phase 2a clinical trials in atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata. ImageneBio is currently conducting a Phase 2b clinical trial of IMG-007 in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. For more information, visit www.inmagenebio.com.

IMG-007 is an investigational, non-depleting monoclonal antibody targeting OX40, a receptor protein primarily found on activated human T cells. When OX40 binds its ligand OX40L in human tissue, the signal generated plays a key role in the activation, expansion, and survival for many subtypes of T cells. Targeted inhibition of OX40 is thus an emerging potential therapeutic strategy to treat a wide range of I&I diseases where aberrant signaling of one or more T cell subtypes is believed to drive disease. IMG-007 has been engineered to include a silenced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity function to avoid T cell depletion or killing, to minimize safety risk. This technology also resulted in extended half-life to prolong therapeutic activity with the aim of maximizing time between doses for a patient. In Phase 2a trials in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis and severe alopecia areata, IMG-007 exhibited sustained clinical and pharmacodynamic activity and was well tolerated. IMG-007 was originally discovered by HUTCHMED. Clinical development is ongoing: additional information about the ongoing Phase 2b trial in moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov using identifier: NCT07037901.