Versant Ventures continues to invest in the increasingly competitive obesity space, this time launching Helicore with $65 million and a GIP-targeting asset intended to induce higher-quality weight loss.
Versant Ventures’ newest obesity biotech Helicore Biopharma debuted on Tuesday with $65 million in series A capital and a mission to leverage human genetics to achieve higher-quality weight loss.
Helicore will focus its developmental efforts on its lead asset HCR-188, an investigational monoclonal antibody that targets GIP, a molecule that has been suggested to promote obesity. According to the biotech’s press announcement, HCR-188 is poised to enter the clinic this year, with topline data expected in the latter half of 2025.
Helicore joins the growing list of young biotech that are seeking to carve out a niche in the lucrative obesity space—including four new companies backed by Versant in recent memory. Last month, for instance, Antag Therapeutics broke into the market touting not only a promising GIP receptor antagonist but also the backing of Novo Holdings, controlling shareholder of weight loss market leader Novo Nordisk.
A month earlier, Versant debuted Pep2Tango Therapeutics, a Maryland-based biotech that aims to overcome the limitations of current GLP-1 therapies with next-generation peptide therapies targeting GLP-1, GIP, amylin and calcitonin receptors. And in May 2024, Versant launched SixPeaks Bio with $110 million for obesity R&D as well as a deal with AstraZeneca that could lead to an acquisition within two years.
To differentiate itself in this crowded space, Helicore is focused on GIP antibody conjugates. Aside from HCR-188, Helicore has other GIP-targeting assets, including some combined with GLP-1 therapies, which the startup contends can target specific subpopulations of people with obesity.
CEO Gerrit Klaerner in a statement said that Helicore’s GIP-focused approach to weight loss will help the biotech stand out with “superior treatment outcomes through enhanced efficacy, tolerability, and convenient dosing regimens.”
To power its GIP approach to obesity, Helicore leverages proprietary clinical data and unique insights from human genetics. Specific loss-of-function mutations in genes encoding for either the GIP molecule or its corresponding receptors impart a certain level of protection from obesity, with people carrying these genetic alterations exhibiting “lean phenotypes” believed to be driven by the GIP-mediated uptake of triglyceride in fat cells, according to Tuesday’s release.
Results of preclinical studies, in which Helicore tested HCR-188 in combination with GLP-1 therapies, suggest that the anti-GIP antibody can induce “preferential loss of fat over lean mass.”Loss of lean muscle mass has been a challenge in the obesity space to date, and several companies are now aiming for higher quality weight loss. Just yesterday, for example, Veru Inc. announced that patients taking enobosarm in combination with Novo’s Wegovy saw 71% lower lean mass loss than those who were taking Wegovy alone.
Aside from Versant, Helicore is also backed by OrbiMed, which co-led Tuesday’s series A. Longitude Capital and Wellington Management participated in the fundraising round.
