Helicore Biopharma

Long-Acting Medicines to Transform Metabolic Health

biotechhealth AImedtech (metabolic diseaseobesity)

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StageSeries A

Raised$65M

Founded2025

Employees6

LocationSan Mateo, CA

About

Helicore Bio is developing long-acting therapies in obesity and cardiometabolic disease using our proprietary antibody-peptide conjugate platform. We have developed proprietary libraries of GLP-1R agonist and amylin receptor agonist therapeutic peptides, optimized for relevant bias, selectivity, and potency characteristics. These peptides are designed for stability, driving intact conjugate durability, and conjugation to a variety of therapeutic antibodies via the Helicore conjugate platform. Our conjugate pipeline is anchored with our proprietary GIP ligand binder antibody, which has demonstrated first-in-class safety, tolerability, and target engagement in our Phase 1 study. Helicore is backed by world-class life science investors and led by a team with deep experience across drug discovery, development, and company building in metabolic disease.

Product

Value proposition: Pioneering long-acting antibody-peptide conjugates and modular platform to deliver quarterly-administered therapies for obesity and cardiometabolic disease
Target customers: biotech and pharma developers, potential collaboration partners in metabolic disease therapeutics

Founders

Gerrit Klaerner — President and CEO
Klaus Veitinger — Chairman of the Board

Products

HCR-488HCR-688HCR-588GIP ligand-binding antibody platformProprietary antibody conjugate platformProprietary peptide libraries

Key features

First-in-class long-acting antibody conjugation platformQuarterly or less frequent dosingBiased GLP-1 receptor agonist peptides with stability and conjugation to antibodiesGIP ligand binding antibody backbone with distinct peptide payloadsTunable receptor selectivity and tolerability profiles

Technologies

antibody-peptide conjugatesGLP-1 agonist peptidesamylin receptor agonistsGIP ligand-binding antibodyproprietary libraries

Target conditions

obesitycardiometabolic diseasemetabolic syndromeweight management

Investors

Versant VenturesOrbiMedLongitude CapitalWellington Management

News

Versant launches another obesity biotech with $65M series A · 2025-01-28T13:35:00.000Z
Weight-loss start-up emerges from stealth · 2025-01-28T03:52:21.000Z
Helicore Biopharma Emerges from Stealth to Continue · 2025-01-28T11:00:00.000Z
Versant invests again in obesity, this time backing Helicore Biopharma | BioPharma Dive · 2025-01-28T06:00:00.000Z
BioCentury - Versant, Orbimed lead $65M launch of GIP-focused start-up Helicore · 2025-01-31T00:06:38.000Z
Helicore stops work on clinical GIP antagonist after Phase 1 results · 2025-12-02T13:46:05.000Z

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Profile updated Jul 29, 2026. Sources: helicore.com, linkedin.com