Protein proximity is a funny thing. In biology, it decides whether a signal whispers or shouts. In business, it decides whether an idea stays academic or turns into leverage. InduPro Therapeutics has been engineering both with intent, and December 10, 2025 made that unmistakable when Sanofi stepped in with a strategic equity investment and research collaboration focused on the bispecific PD-1 agonist program, IDP-003.
InduPro Therapeutics did not show up chasing headlines. Founded in 2022 by Scientific Founder K. Christopher Garcia, Ph.D., alongside Scott Lesley, Ph.D., Rob Oslund, Ph.D., and Niyi Fadeyi, Ph.D., the company emerged from Merck’s Exploratory Science Center with a conviction that proximity is not trivia, it is leverage. Dual headquarters in Seattle and Cambridge underline the point. This is not a zip-code story. It is a system built coast to coast with intent.
CEO Prakash Raman, Ph.D., who joined in April 2024, brought a discipline shaped by time at Novartis, Flagship Pioneering, and Ribon Therapeutics. President and CSO Scott Lesley runs the science like someone who has seen molecules survive contact with reality. IDP-001, the EGFR x CDCP1 bispecific ADC, earned top-ranking preclinical ADC recognition from Beacon in 2025 and is targeting an IND in Q1 2026. Five AACR 2025 posters later, the data is not whispering.
The Sanofi collaboration zeroes in on IDP-003, a PD-1 agonist designed to enhance signaling without Fc receptor engagement or inflammatory theatrics. This is proximity used with restraint. Sanofi’s right of first negotiation is not a courtesy. It is acknowledgment that InduPro’s approach to autoimmune and inflammatory disease has both scientific teeth and commercial gravity.
Capital followed clarity. The $85M Series A in June 2024, co-led by The Column Group and Vida Ventures with participation from MRL Ventures Fund, Emerson Collective, and Euclidean Capital, funded more than experiments. It funded options. Board leadership from Sarah Hymowitz, Ph.D., Helen Kim, M.B.A., Rajul Jain, M.D., Peter Dudek, Ph.D., Rahul Ballal, Ph.D., Craig Parker, and Prakash Raman reflects people who understand how biology, timing, and governance actually intersect.
InduPro Therapeutics is not selling noise. It is selling selectivity, discipline, and the advantage of knowing which proteins need to stand next to each other when biology makes a decision. That kind of proximity has a habit of attracting serious partners, serious capital, and serious attention from anyone still reading the data.
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