The name is a pun. Onchilles. Oncology. Achilles’ heel.
Which is exactly what their scientific co-founder Lev Becker thinks he found.
In 2021, Becker’s lab at the University of Chicago published a paper in Cell showing that a protein released by human neutrophils selectively kills cancer cells. The protein is elastase. The pathway is called ELANE. Not sort of selectively. They threw it at 35 different cancer cell lines and couldn’t find one it didn’t kill. And it left normal cells alone.
That’s the pitch for Onchilles. A completely new cytotoxic mechanism, hiding inside the innate immune system the whole time.
The company was founded in 2017. They raised $7M in Series A that year. Then basically nothing for four years while they worked out the biology.
Last November, they closed a $25M Series A1 extension, bringing total Series A funding to $40M.
Ten employees. No clinical data yet. A first-in-human trial of their lead drug N17350 starts in Australia this year.
Yesterday at AACR 2026, they presented preclinical data for their second program. NEU-002, a systemic version of the ELANE approach.
Onchilles Pharma pipeline
N17350: Advanced solid tumors
Engineered elastase · Intratumoral injection · ELANE pathway activator
NEU-002: Systemic oncology
Engineered protein · IV and IP delivery · ELANE pathway activator
Development candidate nomination for NEU-002 expected early 2026.
The lead asset, N17350, is injected directly into tumors. The idea is to spray the elastase right at the cancer, rather than relying on systemic delivery. Simple. Works in mice. About to be tested in humans.
NEU-002 is the harder play. Deliver it intravenously. Get it into the bloodstream. Have it find tumors on its own.
The AACR data showed IV-administered NEU-002 candidates achieving complete tumor clearance in preclinical colon cancer models. Durable immune memory. Reduced tumor burden in disseminated disease when delivered intraperitoneally.
Preclinical mouse data. I know. But here’s what matters about this company.
If the ELANE pathway is what Becker says it is, a universal cancer-selective killing mechanism that somehow went unnoticed for decades, then Onchilles is early on a target class that nobody else can work on because nobody else has figured out how to drug it.
Ten people. $40M. A mechanism that either does or doesn’t translate to humans.
Australia trials in 2026 will tell us which.
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