Regeneron, Parabilis Partner on Antibody-Helicon Conjugates in Deal Worth Up to $2.3 Billion
Regeneron and Parabilis Medicines entered a research collaboration focused on Antibody-Helicon Conjugates. The deal includes $125 million upfront and financing support and up to $2.2 billion in milestones.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has entered a strategic research collaboration with Parabilis Medicines to discover and develop multiple therapeutic candidates based on Parabilis’s Helicon peptide platform, with a particular focus on Antibody-Helicon Conjugates (AHCs). The research collaboration is designed to combine Regeneron’s antibody-drug conjugate capabilities with Parabilis’ peptide platform, with five initial targets, and Regeneron is committing $75 million to Parabilis’s next financing round while offering the biotech up to $2.3 billion.
The partners plan on creating a novel class of therapeutics called antibody-helicon conjugates in an effort to tackle historically “undruggable” targets. Helicons are stabilized, cell-penetrant alpha-helical peptides engineered to reach intracellular protein targets, including flat binding surfaces that are often poorly addressed by traditional small molecules, and the parties will explore Helicons both as stand-alone therapies and as payloads in AHCs.
Traditional antibody-drug conjugates use antibodies to deliver therapeutic payloads selectively into target cells. AHCs apply the same core concept, combining antibody-guided delivery with Helicon payloads designed to selectively modulate intracellular proteins, including targets that have long been considered undruggable.
The pair will work together on discovery activities, with Regeneron then expected to take on further development, manufacturing and commercialization responsibilities. Under the terms of the agreement, Parabilis is to receive $125 million from Regeneron in the form of a $50 million upfront payment and a commitment to invest $75 million in Parabilis’s next equity financing, subject to certain conditions.
According to the terms of the deal, the biotech could also garner up to $2.2 billion in milestone payments, plus tiered royalties. Regeneron also has the option to tack on more targets for additional option payments.
Earlier this year, the biotech, formerly called FogPharma, secured a $305 million series F to fuel its lead asset zolucatetide, an investigational peptide therapy being tested for rare and solid tumors.