NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 08:39 EST — Premarket
- IMRX shares rose about 24% in premarket trading after the company disclosed updated pancreatic cancer trial data
- Immuneering reported 64% overall survival at 12 months in a 34-patient Phase 2a cohort
- Investors are watching for a larger data update in 1H 2026 and the start of a pivotal Phase 3 trial in mid-2026
Shares of Immuneering Corp jumped about 24% to $8.33 in premarket trading on Thursday, after the biotech released updated survival data for its lead pancreatic cancer program. The stock last closed at $6.74.
The update matters because Immuneering’s valuation hinges on whether atebimetinib can hold up as the company pushes toward a pivotal, late-stage study. For small drug developers without a marketed product, one clinical readout can reset expectations fast.
Pancreatic cancer is a tough proving ground. Survival gains are hard to show, and investors tend to discount early-stage results until they see a randomized trial against standard treatment.
In an 8-K filing late Wednesday, Immuneering said 64% of patients in a 34-person “intent-to-treat” group were alive 12 months after starting atebimetinib (formerly IMM-1-104) alongside modified gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel chemotherapy (mGnP). Overall survival is the share of patients still alive; progression-free survival, or PFS, tracks how long patients live without their disease getting worse. Median PFS was 8.5 months, the filing showed. 1
The company compared the one-year survival rate to a 35% benchmark drawn from published data on standard-of-care gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel, and said the combination remained generally well tolerated. Chief executive Ben Zeskind said Immuneering plans to dose the first patient in its MAPKeeper 301 Phase 3 trial in mid-2026, and to report updated survival data from an expanded cohort of more than 50 patients in the first half of 2026. 2
The readout lands as other drugmakers chase new angles in pancreatic cancer, where most patients are still treated with chemotherapy in the first-line setting. Fierce Biotech reported that Zeskind told investors on a call that PFS is a “surrogate endpoint” and that the separation in PFS adds support to the survival signal, while pointing to competition building from Revolution Medicines’ daraxonrasib program. 3
Still, the data set is small and the comparison is not from a head-to-head trial, which can magnify both optimism and doubt. The next test will be whether the signal holds as more patients are added and, later, in a randomized Phase 3 study where side effects and durability tend to look different.
