The clinical-stage biotech trying to give one molecule the job of many - building multispecific nanobody medicines for immune-mediated disease.
ATTOVIA THERAPEUTICS, San Carlos, California - a company named after "atto," the metric prefix for 10⁻¹⁴, a nod to the ultra-high binding affinity its platform is engineered to reach.
Most biologic medicines are built to do one thing well: block a single pathway, hit a single target, and hope that is enough. For a large share of patients with immune-mediated diseases - the chronic itch that keeps them awake, the inflamed skin that never fully clears - one pathway is not enough. Attovia Therapeutics, a San Carlos, California company that launched in 2023, was founded on that gap. Its wager is that the next generation of biologics will need to engage several disease mechanisms at once, and that the way to get there is to change something fundamental: how a drug binds its target.
At the center of the company sits the ATTOBODY platform, a modular protein-design engine that produces small-format, biparatopic nanobodies - antibody fragments engineered to grip a target in two places at once. That dual grip, the company argues, yields binders with low picomolar affinity, sharper specificity, tunable half-life and faster tissue penetration than conventional antibodies. It also makes them easy to snap together into multispecific medicines, the kind that can address more than one pathway inside a single molecule.
Attovia designs precision biologics that engage multiple disease mechanisms simultaneously, aiming to move past the limits of single-pathway treatments for immune-mediated conditions.
The eventual beneficiaries are patients with chronic pruritus, atopic dermatitis, chronic spontaneous urticaria, prurigo nodularis and related inflammatory disease - people often left short by existing therapies.
Many immune-mediated diseases are driven by several signals at once. Blocking just one leaves symptoms behind. Attovia's answer is to combine mechanisms inside one engineered molecule.
Biparatopic binding is the technical heart of the company. In plain terms: grab a target in two places, hold on tighter, and you can build smaller, more selective medicines - including against notoriously hard targets like G protein-coupled receptors, which make up roughly a third of approved drugs yet remain largely undruggable.
The platform's second selling point is speed. Chief executive Tao Fu has described a discovery cycle that runs "from target identification to actually getting a potential lead" in a four-to-five month window - fast by the standards of an industry that often measures the same step in years.
That combination - precise binding plus a quick, repeatable design loop - is what lets a small company build a pipeline of first-in-class candidates rather than betting everything on a single asset. The name itself reinforces the point: "atto" is the metric prefix for 10⁻¹⁴, a deliberate signal about the scale of affinity the company is chasing.
| Program | Target | Lead Indications | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATTO-1310 | Anti-IL-31, half-life extended | Chronic pruritus of unknown origin (CPUO) and other pruritic conditions | Phase 1 |
| ATTO-3712 | IL-13 x IL-31 bispecific, half-life extended | Atopic dermatitis, chronic spontaneous urticaria, prurigo nodularis, inflammatory skin disease | Phase 1 planned H2 2025 |
| ATTOBODY Platform | Modular biparatopic nanobody engine | Immune-mediated disease incl. inflammatory bowel disease and beyond | Discovery / Expansion |
Both lead programs point at the same clinical territory - the itch and inflammation of immune-mediated skin disease - but from different angles. ATTO-1310 is a focused anti-IL-31 biologic built for fast-acting relief of chronic itch. ATTO-3712 folds two targets, IL-13 and IL-31, into a single bispecific aimed at atopic dermatitis and adjacent conditions, designed for convenient dosing.
We now have a multi-year runway to advance our programs expeditiously, expand our pipeline judiciously, and pursue potential partnerships.- Tao Fu, Co-Founder & CEO, on the April 2025 Series C
Attovia is part of a wider revival of small-format nanobody drugs, a class that competitors have already pushed toward clinical validation. Its differentiation is less about the format alone and more about the biparatopic design and the pace of its discovery loop - the claim that it can generate high-affinity, multispecific candidates quickly and repeatedly, then extend their half-life for practical dosing.
The company enters a crowded and lucrative immunology and dermatology market anchored by blockbuster antibodies for atopic dermatitis and a growing field of anti-IL-31 itch therapies. Rivals and reference points span large players and other nanobody developers. Attovia's bet is that multispecific precision, delivered fast, can carve out best-in-disease positions rather than compete head-on as a follower.
Attovia runs the classic platform-biotech model: build a proprietary pipeline, fund it with venture and crossover capital, and drive candidates toward approval or partnership. Its investor syndicate has grown round by round.
The $90M Series C, announced 15 April 2025, was led by Deep Track Capital with new investors Vida Ventures, Sanofi Ventures and Mirae Asset Capital Life Science, alongside existing backers Frazier Life Sciences, venBio, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Nextech Ventures, Cormorant Asset Management, EcoR1 Capital, Marshall Wace and Illumina Ventures. The proceeds are earmarked to carry ATTO-1310 and ATTO-3712 through clinical proof-of-concept.
25+ years of pharma and biotech leadership across Zai Lab, Portola, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson before founding Attovia.
Leads R&D strategy with 25+ years in drug discovery, early development and business-development search and evaluation.
Protein biochemist and inventor with nearly 30 years in the field and more than 75 published patents.
The founding group also includes Chief Business Officer and co-founder Zaneta Odrowaz, Ph.D., and co-founder and director Yuling Luo, Ph.D. Attovia was incubated out of Alamar Biosciences and Frazier Life Sciences before spinning out as an independent company.
Attovia spins out of Alamar Biosciences and Frazier Life Sciences to develop biparatopic nanobody medicines.
The ATTOBODY platform matures and the company nominates lead programs ATTO-1310 and ATTO-3712.
A Deep Track-led round funds clinical proof-of-concept; ATTO-3712 Phase 1 is planned for the second half of the year.
It develops first-in-class multispecific biologics for immune-mediated diseases using its proprietary ATTOBODY nanobody platform, starting with programs for chronic itch and atopic dermatitis.
A modular protein-design platform that generates small-format, biparatopic nanobody binders with picomolar affinity, tunable half-life and fast tissue penetration, enabling one molecule to engage multiple targets.
ATTO-1310, an anti-IL-31 biologic for chronic pruritus, and ATTO-3712, an IL-13 x IL-31 bispecific for atopic dermatitis and related inflammatory skin conditions.
Approximately $255M in total, including a $60M Series A in 2023 and a $90M Series C closed in April 2025 led by Deep Track Capital.
It is headquartered in San Carlos, California, and co-founded and led by CEO Tao Fu alongside co-founders Petter Veiby, Hangjun Zhan and others.
Note: Series B amount is approximate; figures compiled from public press releases and reporting. Where a detail could not be confirmed, it has been omitted.