Prolium Bioscience is a New York-based, clinical-stage biotechnology company developing PRO-203, a bispecific CD20xCD3 T-cell engager designed to deplete disease-driving B cells as an off-the-shelf therapy for severe autoimmune diseases, starting with systemic sclerosis and lupus. Founded in 2025 and backed by RTW Investments, the company in-licensed global non-oncology and ex-Asia oncology rights to the antibody from China's InnoCare Pharma and KeyMed Biosciences, and launched publicly in March 2026 with a $50 million Series A alongside first-patient dosing.
Kira Biotech is a Brisbane-based clinical-stage immunology company developing first-in-class antibody therapeutics that retrain the immune system instead of broadly suppressing it. Its lead candidate, KB312, selectively depletes activated immune cells to restore immune tolerance, aiming to treat difficult autoimmune and inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, type 1 diabetes, and graft-versus-host disease. Built on decades of dendritic-cell research from Australian institutes and led by US rheumatologist Dr Dan Baker, the company launched with a A$20 million Series A in 2019 led by OneVentures and IP Group.
Progentec Diagnostics is an Oklahoma City company building blood-based biomarker tests and digital health tools for autoimmune diseases, starting with lupus. Its lead product, the aiSLE DX Flare Risk Index, uses an 11-biomarker algorithm to predict a lupus flare up to 12 weeks before it happens, giving rheumatologists a chance to intervene early. Spun out of research tied to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, the company pairs lab science with patient-facing tools like the LupusCorner community to move autoimmune care from reactive to proactive.
Mohan Purushothaman is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Progentec Diagnostics, an Oklahoma City company building blood tests and digital tools that aim to predict autoimmune disease flares before they happen. He came to diagnostics by an unusual route: a Johns Hopkins Ph.D. focused on pharmaceutical pricing, a Harvard research fellowship, five years inside Roche, and a pricing-software practice he built and sold to Alliance Life Sciences. In 2014 he turned that commercial instinct toward lupus, partnering with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and in 2020 raised a $5M Series A led by Plains Venture Partners to bring the aiSLE DX flare-prediction platform and the LupusCorner patient community to market.
Hinge Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Burlingame, California, building next-generation antibody therapeutics on its proprietary GEM-DIMER platform. The platform engineers multivalent, multispecific antibodies that bind their targets cooperatively for dramatically enhanced potency. Its lead candidate, HB2198, is a B cell-depleting agent targeting both CD19 and CD20 with enhanced natural killer cell engagement, now in Phase 1 trials for systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis. The company raised a $30M Series A led by Point72 in January 2025.
Josh Carle is the Chief Business Officer of Hinge Bio, a Burlingame, California biotech building multivalent, multispecific antibody therapies on its GEM-DIMER platform. A dealmaker by trade, he has led or advised more than fifty strategic transactions worth over $2 billion in disclosed deal value, moving from Pfizer Oncology and Daiichi Sankyo to immuno-oncology startup Triumvira before joining Hinge Bio in January 2023 to steer its lead lupus program toward the clinic.