Bodi Hekang closes Series A for Treg immunotherapy
What's the deal? Bodi Hekang (博迪贺康), a Chinese biopharma company developing regulatory T cell (Treg) immunotherapy, has closed its Series A round. The funding was co-led by Fudan Science & Innovation (复旦科创) and Longpan Investment (龙磐投资). The company is advancing both small-molecule drugs and cell therapy approaches targeting autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Proceeds will fund Phase I clinical trials for its lead candidate BT-101 and push preclinical work on its cell therapy pipeline.
Why now? Treg-based immunotherapy represents a paradigm shift from traditional immunosuppressive treatments. Over 60% of autoimmune disease patients fail to respond or lose response to existing biologics. With more than 6 million IBD patients globally and ~380,000 new cases annually, there is urgent need for novel approaches that restore immune tolerance rather than broadly suppressing immunity.
Company background: Founded in 2021 by Professor Shi Yan (石彦) of Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Bodi Hekang has built two proprietary platforms: (1) an oral small-molecule platform that drives in vivo iTreg proliferation via a gut-derived lipid metabolite pathway (Factor X → GPCRx → DC migration → iTreg induction), and (2) the Enforce-T platform using CRISPR-based mCalpain knockout to convert conventional T cells into Treg-like cells with immunosuppressive function comparable to natural Tregs.
