Pyxis Oncology raises about $110m ahead of mid-2027 head and neck Phase 3

Pyxis Oncology has put fresh capital behind its lead antibody-drug conjugate. The company said an October public offering brought in roughly $110 million upfront, and that this should fund operations into the first half of 2028. That period includes the mid-2027 start it has set for a global Phase 3 trial of micvotabart pelidotin, known as MICVO. The company disclosed the details on 5 November 2026 alongside its third-quarter results.

The trial, named Headliner, will recruit people with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who have already had at least one earlier treatment. Pyxis says both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have agreed with its proposed design. A single protocol acceptable to both regulators can spare a sponsor from running separate or amended studies for different markets.

One regulatory question is still open, however. Pyxis expects the FDA's response on which dose to take forward in the first quarter of 2027, following its end-of-Phase 2 meeting. That reply will arrive a few months before the planned first patients are enrolled.

The company also shared updated Phase 1 results for MICVO used alone: a 36% confirmed response rate, with no additional safety concerns emerging. The information available does not specify how many patients were evaluated, how long responses lasted or how the data were cut, so the figure is hard to compare with other agents in the setting.