Dualitas Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode with a $65 million Series A financing round co-led by Versant Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners USA, marking a significant entry into the competitive bispecific antibody space. The funding round included participation from founding investor SV Health Investors and new strategic investors Chugai Venture Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Alexandria Venture Investments.
The South San Francisco-based biotechnology company, founded in 2023, joins established players like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Amgen and Roche in developing bispecific antibody therapies that simultaneously bind to two different molecules in patients' immune systems, compared with traditional monoclonal antibodies that target only one molecule.
Lead Programs Show Promising Preclinical Data
Dualitas plans to use the proceeds to advance its two lead candidates: DTX-103 for allergic disease and DTX-102 for autoimmune disease. According to the company, both therapies have generated compelling preclinical data when benchmarked against approved therapies, addressing unmet medical needs such as faster onset of action and more meaningful clinical benefit.
"DTX-103 and DTX-102 demonstrate compelling preclinical profiles when benchmarked to commercially available therapies," said Rich Murray, Ph.D., interim CEO and board member of Dualitas. "Current therapies for patients with allergic and autoimmune diseases leave important needs unmet, such as faster onset of action and more meaningful clinical benefit."
Forbes Huang, co-founder and chief operating officer of Dualitas, told Reuters that the company considers both candidates extremely compelling based on their data sets. The company is also exploring partnerships to further develop one of the candidates, with DTX-103 specifically targeting asthma and DTX-102 focused on rheumatoid arthritis.
Revolutionary Discovery Platform
Central to Dualitas' approach is its proprietary DualScreen bispecific antibody discovery engine, which the company describes as first-of-its-kind technology. Unlike traditional bispecific discovery approaches that rely on narrow, pre-determined target pairs drawn from known biology to achieve incremental gains, DualScreen operates at combinatorial scale to functionally screen entire cell surfaces across a vast range of targets and epitopes.
The platform uniquely integrates high-throughput discovery of novel bispecific antibodies and cell-surface proximity mechanisms with rapid candidate optimization to final therapeutic format. This approach has shown potential for greater pharmacologic activity than conventional biotherapeutics by identifying bispecific antibody combinations that are truly synergistic rather than simply additive.
The DualScreen discovery effort is also producing an expanding collection of novel immune engagers—reusable antibody arms that can be integrated into a wide range of bispecific antibodies to elicit repeatable and differentiated activity. These engagers can be paired with diverse targets to drive novel activity that monospecific agents cannot achieve.
Experienced Leadership Team
Dualitas is led by a team of experienced drug developers, biotherapeutic engineers, immunologists, and business leaders with proven track records in developing antibody technologies from preclinical stages through product approvals. The senior management team includes Rich Murray Ph.D., interim CEO and board member, previously CEO of Jounce Therapeutics and senior vice president of Biologics and Vaccines at Merck; Forbes Huang, co-founder, chief operating officer and chief business officer, previously CEO of a Novo Holdings biotech startup; Greg Lazar Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer, previously senior director at Genentech; and Neil Weir Ph.D., executive chairman of the board, previously CEO of Sitryx Therapeutics.
Strategic Expansion Plans
Beyond advancing its current pipeline, Dualitas plans to use the funding to further develop its DualScreen platform to expand into broader therapeutic areas, including cancer and rare diseases. The company is pursuing a two-pronged strategy of advancing its own pipeline while establishing strategic partnerships to extend the reach and impact of DualScreen-discovered candidates.
"With the Series A proceeds, Dualitas is now well-positioned to maximize the potential of its technology through a two-pronged strategy: advancing a pipeline that capitalizes on cell-surface proximity biology mechanisms, and pursuing strategic partnerships that extend the reach and impact of DualScreen-discovered candidates," said Alicia Levey, Ph.D., venture partner at Versant Ventures and Dualitas board member.
The company offers various strategic collaboration opportunities ranging from existing pipeline programs to identifying de novo bispecific antibodies and establishing programs in disease areas beyond immunology and inflammation.
