Aditya Venugopal is the Chief Business Officer of Alentis Therapeutics, a clinical-stage Swiss biotech chasing first-in-class therapies aimed at claudin-1 for fibrosis and cancer. An immunologist turned dealmaker, he spent 15-plus years moving between the lab bench and the negotiating table: a Ph.D. in immunology from Weill Cornell, seven years in strategic life-science consulting, then senior roles at Intercept, VectivBio and Versanis Bio. He has a habit of being in the room when companies get acquired - VectivBio went to Ironwood, Versanis went to Eli Lilly - and he reunited with CEO Mark Pruzanski at Alentis after first partnering with him at Intercept.
Alentis Therapeutics is a Swiss clinical-stage biotech built around a single, unusual biological target: Claudin-1 (CLDN1), a tight-junction protein that becomes exposed in both fibrotic tissue and solid tumors. Founded in 2019 on the discovery of physician-scientist Professor Thomas Baumert, the company develops first-in-class monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates that bind exposed CLDN1 to reverse organ fibrosis and treat CLDN1-positive cancers. Headquartered in Allschwil near Basel with R&D roots in Strasbourg, Alentis has raised roughly $365 million across rounds, including a $181.4 million Series D in November 2024, and is running clinical trials for its lead antibody lixudebart (ALE.F02) and two ADCs, ALE.P02 and ALE.P03.