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Merck KGaA partner Remepy raises USD 36m Series A for 'hybrid drug' platform

Israel-based Remepy, a biotechnology company developing Hybrid Drugs — a class that combines conventional prescription pharmaceuticals with personalized,...

Edited by Robert McTiernan··2 min read
Merck KGaA partner Remepy raises USD 36m Series A for 'hybrid drug' platform

Israel-based Remepy, a biotechnology company developing what it classes as "hybrid drugs" — drug products that combine conventional prescription pharmaceuticals with personalized, AI-driven therapeutic apps — has closed a USD 36 million Series A financing round, bringing total capital raised to USD 62 million.

O.G. Venture Partners and M Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Germany-based Merck KGaA, co-led the round. Returning investors NFX, Vine Ventures, Qumra Capital, TechAviv, 97212 Ventures, Fresh Fund, and PsyMed Ventures participated alongside new backers Tadmor Group, Key1 Capital, and IT-Farm Corp. M Ventures' involvement deepens an already established commercial relationship: Remepy and Merck KGaA announced a co-development collaboration in April 2026 to advance "hybrid drugs" across multiple therapeutic areas, beginning with rare tumors. The company said proceeds will fund global Phase III development of its lead program, expand pharmaceutical co-development partnerships, and scale the Hybrid Drug platform. NFX led the company's USD 10 million seed round in 2024.

Remepy's lead asset, Hybridopa, combines immediate-release carbidopa/levodopa with DopApp, an AI-driven mobile application delivering adaptive motor, cognitive and behavioral protocols. In a three-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase IIa trial involving 41 patients with Parkinson's disease, all participants remained on unchanged levodopa doses and received either DopApp or a placebo digital application. Hybridopa produced a 9.7-point mean reduction on the MDS-UPDRS Parts I+II+III, compared with a 1.95-point reduction in controls (p=0.0005), providing early evidence that the digital component can add to the effects of standard pharmacotherapy.

Functional MRI analyses reported strengthening of connectivity in motor and limbic circuits that correlated with clinical improvements, which the researchers interpreted as preliminary mechanistic evidence that the digital intervention may augment dopaminergic therapy through neuroplasticity. Global Phase III development is expected to begin in Q4 2026.

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Hybridopa also represents an emerging regulatory model for integrating software with pharmaceutical products. Remepy points to the FDA's Prescription Drug Use-Related Software (PDURS) framework as a potential pathway for incorporating software functions into drug labeling. A pivotal study would therefore test not only Hybridopa's efficacy in a larger population, but whether the incremental contribution of the digital component demonstrated in Phase IIa can be reproduced at Phase III scale.

The platform was developed out of research by co-founder and Chief Science Officer Prof. Amir Amedi, who founded the Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition and Technology at Reichman University in Israel. Beyond Hybridopa, Remepy has disclosed early-stage programs in fertility and immunology, to be developed through pharmaceutical partnerships. The Merck KGaA collaboration on rare tumors represents the first such partnership to enter co-development.

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