InduPro Closes $77M Series B, Doses First Patient in IDP-001 Phase 1 — Merck, Sanofi, and Lilly All At the Table

InduPro, Inc. closed a $77 million Series B financing and dosed the first patient in its Phase 1 study of IDP-001 on August 12, 2026, per a Business Wire release that day. The Seattle-based private biotech has now raised $162 million in total, according to PitchBook.

The round was led by The Column Group. Returning investors include Vida Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund (Merck & Co.'s therapeutics-focused venture arm), Emerson Collective (advised by Yosemite), and Euclidean Capital. New investors entering at the Series B are Solasta Ventures, Sanofi, and Eli Lilly and Company — three additions that bring two major global pharmaceutical companies and an additional venture fund into the cap table alongside the returning syndicate.

Proceeds are earmarked for Phase 1 clinical development and early proof-of-concept data generation for IDP-001, plus advancement of InduPro's broader preclinical pipeline, per the August 12 release.

IDP-001 is a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate the company describes as a potential first-in-class candidate. It targets EGFR and TAPA-E1 — TAPA-E1 being a novel Tumor-Associated Proximity Antigen identified through InduPro's proprietary proximity-guided discovery platform. The open-label, first-in-human study (NCT07602842) is evaluating safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary antitumor activity of IDP-001 as monotherapy in adults with advanced or metastatic squamous or non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer and other squamous solid tumors that have progressed following standard-of-care treatment.

Chief Medical Officer Amanda J. Redig, M.D., Ph.D., explained the scientific design rationale in the August 12 release: "Treatment options for squamous cancers have not kept pace with advances in other solid tumors. IDP-001 was designed to help address this gap by harnessing the power of biological proximity. The targets for our bispecific ADC were selected based not only on their shared biology across squamous tumors, but also on their proximity on the surface of cancer cells, a spatial relationship not found in normal tissue."

The Phase 1 study (NCT07602842) is the first human test of that spatial selectivity argument.

CEO Prakash Raman, Ph.D., framed the milestone this way in the same release: "We are delighted to have the support of this outstanding group of life sciences investors and strategic partners who recognize the potential of our proximity-guided platform to create precision therapeutics in oncology and autoimmune disease. With IDP-001 now in the clinic, our focus is on disciplined clinical execution. I am pleased with how effectively our team has advanced the program and encouraged by the strong early interest from principal investigators and clinical sites as we expand the study."

InduPro was founded in 2022. Being private, no public share count, cash position, or market capitalization figures are available.

What's next, per the August 12 release: site expansion for the Phase 1 study and generation of early proof-of-concept data. The Phase 1 readout timeline was not specified in the release.