Utrecht-based Cleara, a company on a mission to target cellular senescence to extend human healthspan and to counteract late-stage cancer, announced on Tuesday, September 27, that it raised $2.5M (approximately €2.58M) in a Seed round of funding earlier in the year.
The investment was led by Apollo Health Ventures, with participation from Curie Capital, ROM Utrecht Region, and Longevity Tech Fund.
Cleara says it will use the funds to progress its compounds toward clinical development and further build the company’s developmental pipeline and management team.
What does Cleara offer?
Founded in 2018, Cleara is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing therapies for treating different pathologies of “scarred cellular” senescence, including late-stage cancer and chronic diseases.
The company uses its knowledge of senescence subtypes to create drugs that will eradicate them in the corresponding disorders. Understanding the molecular and biological processes that underlie these diseased phenotypes allows Cleara to take advantage of their weak spots for safe and selective clearance.
Cleara spun out from University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU).
Two lead developmental candidates
Cleara has optimised two lead developmental candidates, CL04177 and CL04183, that can eliminate scarred cancer cells found in several late-stage cancers and chronic diseases in humans.
With its FOXO4-based D-amino acid peptides and pipeline against subtypes of senescence, the company seeks to produce precision medicine tools that treat certain illnesses with unambiguous niche-directed, anti-senescent lead candidates, accompanied by associated biomarkers.
As senescent cells impair tissue function, identifying how these cells avoid apoptosis allows for the prospective design of anti-senescence compounds and will be critical to address whether homeostasis can be restored. Researchers from Cleara discovered that FOXO4 has the ability to sequester active, phosphorylated p53, inhibiting nuclear translocation and triggering apoptosis in cancer and senescent cells with scar tissue.
Senescent/scarred cells are extremely selective targets for CL04177/CL04183 because they share characteristics and distinctive biomarkers with a variety of chemo-resistant and/or metastatic malignancies.
Both lead compounds are effective against the viability of scarred cancer cells in 2D culture and 3D organoids, as well as reducing the metastatic burden and infiltration in mouse in vivo models for metastatic colon cancer and triple-negative breast cancer. They were developed and optimised based on an extensive (3D) structural, molecular, and cellular understanding of cell scarring’s mechanism of action and how FOXO4 restrains this particular form of the cell guardian p53.
Additionally, they have good pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution in mice, and their MTD is well above their efficacious dose.
Dr Peter de Keizer, MD and Scientific Founder of Cleara, says, “As Cleara’s vision is to develop novel, highly innovative approaches to combat life-threatening diseases, we look forward to further building the company’s pipeline and advancing our preclinical studies. At the same time, Dr Stergiou’s deep expertise in cancer drug development and impressive track record of building companies will be invaluable to use as we scale our preclinical and regulatory efforts in the US and EU to enter the clinic by 2024.”
Appoints seasoned industry executive Dr Angelos Stergiou
Cleara has appointed Dr Angelos Stergiou, New York-based SELLAS Life Sciences’ President and CEO, as the Chairman of its Board of Directors. With more than 20 years of experience in immuno-oncology, drug development, and health economics, Stergiou is a recognised leader in the biotechnology sector. He also has a strong background in finance and corporate governance.
Stergiou says, “Cleara’s novel FOXO4-based treatment approach, which harnesses the unique attributes of utilising biomarkers and ability to eliminate biomarker-positive scarred cells, specific subsets of senescence, has the potential to be a disruptive treatment paradigm for many high-unmet-need cancer patient populations. I look forward to working with the Board and management team as the company continues to grow at such a pivotal time.”
Dr Marianne Mertens, Partner at Apollo Health Ventures, says, “As we have worked closely with Cleara since its inception, playing a key role in the company’s founding, Apollo Health Ventures has been impressed with the progress achieved to date. We believe that the FOXO4-based approach, including the utilisation of biomarkers, has great promise to develop safe and efficacious drugs in several diseases.”
“We also look forward to benefiting from Dr Stergiou’s biotech finance and operations knowledge, which will have an immediate and beneficial impact on our strategy to bring first- and/or best-in-class cancer drugs to patients,” adds Mertens.
