In the sprawling metropolis of Houston, a new biotech has emerged to tackle the biology underlying a lung disease that has no clear cause. Oorja Bio launched yesterday afternoon with $30 million and an in-licensed, novel approach to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Oorja’s funds come from founding investor Westlake BioPartners, according to the May 19 release. The biotech’s lead asset is ORJ-001, an activator of a receptor called β1 integrin that is key for maintaining the structure and stability of the lungs. A lack of β1 integrin can promote inflammation and lung damage.
ORJ-001 was formerly called NP-201 and was discovered by a South Korean biotech called NIBEC. NIBEC licensed the peptide to Oorja in May 2025 in a deal worth as much as $435 million, though at the time Oorja’s name was kept confidential.
With the cash in hand, Oorja now intends to launch a phase 2 study of ORJ-001 in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis later this year. Pulmonary fibrosis is a disease where the lungs are inflamed and scar over time; the condition is called idiopathic whenever a reason for the scarring can’t be identified.
β1 integrin is found on important skin cells in the lung’s air sacs, called alveoli. These alveolar type 2 cells secrete molecules that help the lungs expand easily when breathing and protect the balloon-like organs from infection.
“Our team is energized to deliver on our goal of redefining the future of fibrotic diseases, beginning with ORJ-001,” Oorja co-founder and CEO Sujay Kango said in the release. “We are embracing the paradigm shift in our biological understanding of IPF pathology that aligns with the central role of the alveolar epithelium. ORJ-001 was designed with this biology in mind and may provide, for the first time, a therapeutic intervention that repairs and reverses fibrosis and promotes disease modification.”
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The fledgling company plans for ORJ-001 to be just the start of a pipeline focused on diseases marked by scarring and hindered cardiopulmonary function, according to the release.
Before Oorja, Kango led Tmunity Therapeutics through its acquisition by Gilead’s Kite Pharma. He and fellow Oorja co-founder Janethe Pena, M.D., Ph.D., also previously worked at Acceleron Pharma, which was bought by Merck in 2021 for $11.5 billion. Pena serves as Oorja’s chief medical officer.
The final co-founder, Chief Business Officer Connie Coulomb, started her career with a nearly decade-long term at Merck before moving on to Amgen and later Biogen.
When it comes to innovating in the IPF treatment space, Oorja has competition. Avalyn Pharma recently went public to advance its inhaled versions of established lung drugs, including the IPF pill pirfenidone. And PureTech launched a new startup last August, Celea Therapeutics, to push forward an IPF candidate that the new CEO said could be a “a true turning point” in the disease’s treatment.
