When biotech decides to go exploring, it doesn’t pack a map, it builds one. Expedition Therapeutics just dropped a $165M Series A that feels less like funding and more like fuel for a moonshot in respiratory innovation. Led by Sofinnova Investments and Novo Holdings, with backup from Forbion, KKR’s Dawn Biopharma, Adage Capital, Balyasny Asset Management, Logos Capital, and Sanofi Ventures, this round reads like an all-star syndicate that knows how to bet on conviction. Existing believers BVF Partners, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, and Lake Bleu Capital doubled down, proving that big science still draws bigger faith.
At the center of this orbit is Founder & CEO Yi Larson, MIT engineer turned Wharton-financed strategist, former Goldman Sachs MD, and ex-CFO at Turning Point Therapeutics and LianBio. Larson’s not just bridging East and West; she’s turning cross-border biotech into a precision instrument. Expedition Therapeutics has one mission: in-license late-stage Chinese assets and take them global. The company’s lead program, EXDP-101, was picked up from Fosun Pharma in a $120M upfront deal with potential milestones stretching to $645M. That’s not a deal, that’s a declaration.
EXDP-101 is a once-daily oral DPP1 inhibitor targeting neutrophil-driven inflammation, a space where 70% of COPD patients still wait for control. Think of it as calming the storm without sinking the ship: blocking destructive proteases without killing the body’s defenses. Early data hit with clean safety and a pharmacokinetic profile tailor-made for global scale-up. Expedition’s already in global Phase 2 for COPD, while Fosun’s S-Infinity Pharma continues trials in China, proving this collaboration’s more symphony than solo act.
Backing Larson is a dream roster: Geoff Gilmartin, M.D., CMO, the man behind AstraZeneca’s Fasenra; Eric Hu, Ph.D., CBO, with a track record that’s part Gilead grit, part Turning Point hustle; and Chairman Andrew Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Akero Therapeutics, who knows how to take science from petri dish to Wall Street. With a scientific advisory board featuring James Chalmers, Alvar Agustí, Mark Dransfield, Dave Singh, and Surya Bhatt, the heavyweights of COPD, Expedition’s not guessing at biology; it’s rewriting its map in real time.
So yeah, $165M sounds big. But what’s bigger is the intent, to turn neutrophil biology into the next frontier of respiratory care. Expedition Therapeutics isn’t just chasing air; it’s redefining what breath looks like when innovation leads the way.
