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. SEC
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.
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. Fierce Biotech
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.
