Regeneron has announced a strategic research collaboration with Parabilis Medicines to discover and develop multiple therapeutic candidates based on Parabilis’ Helicon peptide platform.
This includes a focus on antibody-helicon conjugates (AHCs), a novel class of therapeutics designed to target challenging and historically ‘undruggable’ targets.
Helicons are stabilised, cell-penetrant alpha-helical peptides designed to engage intracellular protein targets, including flat surfaces not well suited to traditional small molecule binding. The collaboration is designed to explore the use of Helicons both as stand-alone therapies and as part of AHCs.
George Yancopoulos, Board co-Chair, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron, said: “In addition to the potential of Helicons to address previously undruggable targets, the collaboration’s intent to couple Helicons to our VelocImmune derived-antibodies so as to precisely deliver them to cells of interest represents an exciting new approach with the potential to create an entirely new therapeutic class that can span multiple therapeutic areas.”
Antibody-drug conjugates traditionally use antibodies to selectively deliver drug payloads into target cells to drive cell death from within. The AHCs envisioned by this collaboration are underpinned by the same delivery principle: pairing antibody-targeted cell access with Helicon payloads designed to selectively modulate specific intracellular proteins, including some long considered undruggable.
Regeneron will pay Parabilis $125m with up to $2.2bn in potential milestone payments and royalties.