Less than two months after Kailera Therapeutics Inc. made headlines with biopharma’s largest IPO to date, Parabilis Medicines Inc. has come along and surpassed it. The oncology-focused firm priced its upsized IPO of 3.5 million shares at $20 apiece for gross proceeds of $670 million, an amount that could rise to $770 million should underwriters exercise their full overallotment option. Parabilis is raising another $75 million via a concurrent private placement, in which new partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed to purchase about 4.2 million shares at $18 apiece. The company, which was founded in 2015 as Fog Pharmaceuticals, said proceeds will support work on lead program zolucatide and earlier-stage candidates emerging from its Helicon platform. Parabilis shares began trading around midday on Nasdaq under the ticker PBLS, gaining more than 40%.

Dianthus dips on competitor Sanofi’s CIDP phase III quit

Shares of Dianthus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:DNTH) were trading at $71.12, down $13.45, or almost 16%, on word that Paris-based Sanofi SA’s phase III Mobilize study with riliprubart in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) will be stopped for futility. In March, Dianthus, of Waltham, Mass., and New York, disclosed an early “go” decision on its prospect, claseprubart, in CIDP. Both are monoclonal antibodies that selectively block the active form of C1s in the classical complement pathway.

Researchers hit back after colleagues removed from ADA meeting

Former principal officers of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) have hit back at the association’s board and CEO after it prohibited the distribution of an editorial published in its flagship journal Diabetes Care at the ADA’s meeting in New Orleans on June 5. In an open letter, 12 former board chairs condemn the ADA’s action in expelling Steven Kahn, professor of medicine at the University of Washington’s Diabetes Institute, and four colleagues, who were handing out the editorial criticizing the Trump administration’s cuts to science funding and public health policies. “[We] write to express our shock and disapproval of the recent decision of the Association to prohibit the distribution … of an important editorial that had already been published in Diabetes Care on the vitally important subject of federal reductions in scientific and medical research funding,” the letter says.

Three deals in six days: Everest builds late-stage APAC portfolio

Fresh off a deal with Travere Therapeutics Inc. for civorebrutinib worth more than $1.14 billion, Everest Medicines Ltd. went on a shopping spree, striking three deals in six days to expand its pipeline and geographic reach across Asia Pacific. The Shanghai-based company is acquiring or licensing regional rights to assets in presbyopia, antithrombotic disease, and autoimmune/nephrology, signaling an accelerated push to build a de-risked, late-stage portfolio in core therapy areas, while strengthening its role as an Asia-Pacific commercialization platform. The deals – for Corxel Pharmaceuticals Ltd.’s LNZ-100 in greater China, Vcare Pharmatech Co. Ltd.’s sumecigrel in Asia Pacific, and Beijing Mabworks Biotech Co. Ltd.’s Bejescin across much of Asia-Pacific – share several features in that all involve differentiated or first/best-in-class claims, all sit in Everest’s focus areas, and all come with relatively near-term regulatory or commercial milestones.

Europe’s Alzecure, Orionis in $1B+ deals with Lilly, Novartis

Two European companies signed billion-dollar deals with large pharma firms in the last two days to discover and develop molecular glue drugs, as well as to advance a preclinical Alzheimer’s disease prospect. For both companies, the up-front payments are small, only $10 million for Huddinge, Sweden-based Alzecure Pharma AB, and just $40 million for Ghent, Belgium-based Orionis Biosciences BV. But it’s the back-end milestone amounts that are headline-grabbing. Alzecure’s deal with Eli Lilly and Co. involves global rights to gamma-secretase modulator ACD-680 for Alzheimer’s disease and entails a value of $1 billion or more when including milestone payments. The Orionis deal, signed with Novartis AG, is a multiyear collaboration to discover and design molecular glue drugs for challenging targets across multiple diseases, with up to $1.4 billion in milestone payments possible. Both deals also include tiered royalties.

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