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Parabilis shatters biotech IPO records with a $670 million debut & AlzeCure’s shares surged more than 300%

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Joachim Eeckhout & Eduardo Longoria
June 11, 2026

Good morning. The thyroid eye disease (TED) market is getting increasingly crowded. Amgen’s Tepezza is already approved, while late-stage assets from Viridian, argenx, Biohaven, Immunovant, and Sanofi are racing toward the market. Now, new kid on the block, Ethyreal Bio, has just exited stealth with $101 million to join the race. May the best one win.

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Parabilis shatters biotech IPO records with a $670 million debut amid a booming 2026 market

Currencies and finance. Stock exchange. Calculator on the table

Parabilis Medicines raised $670 million in its IPO, making it the largest-ever public stock offering by a venture-backed biotech company and continuing a surge of large biotech listings in 2026.

Why it matters: The record-breaking IPO signals strong investor appetite for innovative drug developers, especially companies tackling historically “undruggable” disease targets. The strong fundraising environment gives biotechs greater resources to advance expensive late-stage clinical trials.

Backstory: Founded by serial biotech entrepreneur Gregory Verdine, Parabilis (formerly FogPharma) has spent years developing “Helicons,” a new class of helix-shaped peptide medicines designed to enter cells and target cancer-driving proteins that traditional drugs have struggled to reach. The company previously raised more than $800 million from private investors and later rebranded as Parabilis. Former Johnson & Johnson research executive Mathai Mammen now serves as CEO.

Big picture: Parabilis’ IPO highlights a dramatic rebound in biotech public markets. In 2026, 12 drug companies have gone public in the U.S., raising more than $4.1 billion combined, with a median IPO size of roughly $300 million; more than double the typical biotech IPO proceeds from the previous year. The company’s record surpasses Moderna’s $604 million 2018 IPO and Kailera Therapeutics’ $625 million offering earlier in 2026.

Zoom in: Parabilis’ lead drug candidate, zolucatetide, targets the beta-catenin signaling pathway, which is involved in millions of cancer cases. Early studies suggest promise in treating desmoid tumors, and the company believes the therapy could be more effective and safer than existing options.

What’s next: Parabilis plans to launch a Phase 3 clinical trial of zolucatetide for desmoid tumors in the first half of 2027. The company is also expanding testing into other cancers and advancing earlier-stage programs targeting prostate cancer.

SNIPPETS

What’s happening in biotech today?

💰 Lilly jackpot: Swedish biotech AlzeCure Pharma’s shares surged more than 300% after signing a collaboration and licensing agreement with Eli Lilly for its preclinical Alzheimer’s candidate ACD680, with the deal including $10 million upfront and potential milestone payments exceeding $1 billion plus royalties. ACD680 is a gamma-secretase modulator designed to alter amyloid-beta production by reducing the plaque-associated Aβ42 peptide while increasing less aggregation-prone forms, representing a renewed approach to the amyloid hypothesis after earlier gamma-secretase inhibitors failed due to safety concerns. Although the broader Alzheimer’s pipeline is becoming more diverse, with growing focus on tau and inflammatory pathways, Lilly continues to heavily invest in amyloid-based strategies.

🔊 Turn up the ultrasound: SonoThera has raised $125 million in a series B financing round led by Vida Ventures, with support from the investment arms of UCB, Bayer, Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Johnson & Johnson, to advance its ultrasound-based genetic medicine delivery platform into clinical testing. The company’s technology uses microbubbles and ultrasound to temporarily open blood vessels and cell membranes, allowing naked DNA or RNA to enter targeted tissues without relying on viral vectors or lipid nanoparticles, potentially overcoming limitations such as immune responses, toxicity, manufacturing complexity and payload size restrictions. SonoThera plans to begin a clinical trial in Duchenne muscular dystrophy next year using its approach to deliver the full-length dystrophin gene.

🔄 RNA reload: Norwegian biotech Circio has completed a NOK300 million ($31.5 million) financing round, bringing its total funds raised in the first half of 2026 to approximately NOK620 million ($65 million) and extending its cash runway through the end of 2030. The funding will support advancement of its circVec circular RNA expression platform toward IND-enabling studies and clinical proof-of-concept, with applications in AAV gene therapy and in vivo CAR-T.

📉 Trial flop: Sanofi’s $11.6 billion acquisition of Bioverativ has come under renewed scrutiny after riliprubart, a C1s inhibitor inherited through the deal, failed a phase 3 trial in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) due to lack of efficacy, prompting a review of its other ongoing studies. The setback contrasts with previous Bioverativ successes, including Enjaymo, which Sanofi later sold to Recordati for $825 million, and Altuviiio, its haemophilia A treatment that has become a blockbuster with €325 million in Q1 2026 sales.

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