Caldera Therapeutics has burst onto the scene with $112.5 million in combined series A cash the Massachusetts biotech will use to fund development of an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) drug licensed from China.
The bispecific antibody—which targets the IL-23p19 and TL1A pathways—was licensed from China’s Qyuns Therapeutics. Since being founded last year, Caldera has already taken the therapy, dubbed CLD-423, into a phase 1 study of healthy volunteers.
“By elegantly combining two powerful autoimmune targets in a single molecule, CLD-423 represents the next frontier in IBD treatment,” Caldera CEO Praveen Tipirneni, M.D., said in a Jan. 14 release.
“Bispecifics have the potential to redefine the efficacy bar in IBD, and CLD-423 is rationally designed to achieve a best-in-disease profile with optimized efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetics and developability,” the CEO added.
Tipirneni previously headed up Morphic Therapeutic, the integrin-focused biotech that was scooped up by Eli Lilly for $3.2 billion in 2024.
Lilly has itself seen some success targeting IL-23p19—one of the pathways targeted by Caldera’s CLD-423—thanks to the pharma’s approved ulcerative colitis med Omvoh. It’s also the target of Johnson & Johnson’s Tremfya and AbbVie’s Skyrizi for Crohn’s disease.
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TL1A, the other target of Caldera’s drug, has seen increased interest from Big Pharma in the wake of Roche’s $7 billion acquisition of Roivant subsidiary Telavant in 2023. Since then, Sanofi and Teva’s anti-TL1A antibody duvakitug performed well in a phase 2 IBD trial, while AbbVie got in on the action by buying a preclinical IBD candidate from China’s FutureGen Biopharmaceutical in 2024.
Caldera is well financed to take forward its own IL-23p19 and TL1A clinical ambitions thanks to an initial $75 million series A round from founding investors Atlas Venture, LAV and venBio in April 2025. The biotech recently topped up this funding pot with a $37.5 million A-1 round led by Omega Funds, which saw Wellington Management and Janus Henderson Investors also come on board.
“We see CLD-423 as a program that has the potential to change the IBD treatment paradigm,” Michelle Doig, a partner at Omega Funds, said in a statement. “Caldera’s scientific strategy, execution focus and leadership team truly distinguish the company and position CLD-423 as a new standard of care.”
