Cleara Biotech

Cleara is a biopharmaceutical R&D company engaged in the discovery and development of therapies against aging-related diseases, cancer, and chronic diseases through the selective elimination of sub-types of cellular senescence.

Its platform utilizes knowledge to design and optimize compounds against specific sub-types of senescence to target elimination of these in respective diseases. The approach is not to try to kill all senescent cells but develop specific and safe compounds against unique sub-types. To this end, it intends to use the D-amino acid peptide development pipeline.

The company’s lead program targets “scarred” senescent and cancer cells, which are elevated in persistent damage and biomarkers as active p53 and PML. They work on progressing scarring-specific FOXO4/p53 peptides into clinical development with a clear initial focus on p53-driven cancer metastases. Other key product candidates, CL04177 and CL04183, are claimed to be specifically able to eliminate a type called “scarred” senescence, found in several chronic diseases and late-stage cancer in humans. These reportedly show favorable pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution in mice and have an MTD that is well above their efficacious dose. These products are in the preclinical stages as of October 2023.

Funding and financials

In September 2022, Cleara Biotech raised USD 2.5 million in a seed financing round led by Apollo Health Ventures. The proceeds were to be used to progress the company’s compounds toward clinical development and further build its developmental pipeline and management team.