Indian biotech startup Pandorum Technologies has closed on $18 million in a Series B financing round to continue clinical development of its regenerative therapies—including a novel ophthalmic therapeutic for corneal blindness.
Let’s start with this biotech.
The Bangalore, India-based Pandorum—which also has operations in the United States—is engineering advanced therapeutics and functional human tissues to treat degenerative and inflammatory diseases impacting the lungs, liver, and nervous system.
Specifically: The company has developed a proprietary technology platform that uses four key technologies for research and therapeutic purposes:
See here for a breakdown of each.
And on the research front: Its global operations extend to research & development (R&D) labs in both India and the United States.
Now tell me about this financing.
As the second financing we’ve reported on for Pandorum (see here for details on the $11 million secured in 2024), this latest round was led by Protons Corporate.
- See here for the other investors.
The intent: As we mentioned, the company plans to use this latest financing to continue clinical development of “disease-modifying, tunable, exosome-based therapies.”
- Plus, scale global manufacturing and expand operations across the U.S., Japan, and the Middle East.
Next: Focus on this ophthalmic connection.
Pandorum’s lead therapeutic program is the bioengineered cornea, a class of products powered by tissue regenerative exosomes and tissue-mimetic biomaterials.
These bioprinted lenticules are biologically engineered and deployed to support:
- Epithelium growth on the corneal surface
- Cell viability in the matrix
The intent: Is to offer alternative solutions to corneal transplants that feature patient-specific exosomes for scarless regeneration of corneal tissue.
And what do we know about the lead candidate?
Its name: Kuragenx (also known as the “liquid cornea”).
What it is: An exosome-based therapy designed to target ocular surface diseases (OSDs) like Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and neurotrophic keratitis (NK).
- Check out the U.S. (from Northwestern University-Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago) and India-based clinical partners involved in its development.
And notably: The therapeutic is part of a clinical manufacturing partnership announced last year between Pandorum and the Italian AGC Biologics, in which AGC agreed to support the stage-wise scale-up of the therapeutic for the U.S. and European markets.
- See here for more on its global manufacturing partnerships.
Tell me more about Kuragenx.
The therapeutic is composed of exosomes specialized to advance cornea regeneration and combined with Pandorum’s proprietary biopolymeric solution.
- How it works: Kuragenx is topically applied to the cornea—one drop in each eye—of a corneal-blind patient.
- See here for how the biopolymer solution enables the sustained release of exomoes.
- Post-application: The drop spreads and solidifies over the cornea (within less than 10 minutes) using visible light.
The intended result: This “liquid cornea” should regenerate scarless cornea tissue and revert an ulcerative cornea to a healthy state in less than 1 year, according to Pandorum.
Can we get a visual of this process?
And where is Kuragenx in its clinical journey?
The therapeutic is reported to have already secured Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for its NK indication.
On the clinical trial front: While Kuragenx has reportedly already been (successfully) evaluated in pre-clinical studies on animals, a first-in-human (FIH) trial has yet to kick off.
Stay tuned for updates on this in the coming months …