Westlake BioPartners put $30 million into Oorja Bio on May 19, writing the only check in a Series A that’s built around two founders who helped shepherd sotatercept, now marketed as Winrevair, through FDA approval for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The next target: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a difficult-to-treat and fatal fibrotic lung disease.
The lead asset is ORJ-001, a subcutaneous peptide acting as a β1 integrin agonist to restore alveolar epithelial type 2 cell function. Phase 1 in 64 healthy volunteers produced no systemic toxicities; injection-site reactions were the worst of it. FDA has cleared the IND, and a Phase 2 in IPF patients is planned for this year.
The team’s pedigree explains the conviction. CEO Sujay Kango was Chief Commercial Officer at Acceleron when Merck bought it for $11.5 billion in 2021. CMO Janethe Pena led sotatercept through Phase 3 and BLA submission at Merck.
That’s what Westlake is buying: a first-in-class mechanism in a disease where physicians have only two approved drugs, both from 2014, and neither halts progression. The IPF field’s benchmark exit is Roche’s $8.3 billion buyout of InterMune, built on an already-approved drug. At $30 million on a Phase 2-ready asset, Westlake is buying early. Whether ORJ-001 works in fibrotic human lungs, not just animal models, is what Phase 2 will answer.
— Diana Kowalski