Company targets clinical trials of exosome-based ‘liquid cornea’ technology designed to combat corneal blindness.
Indian-US biotech Pandorum Technologies has closed an $18 million Series B round as it prepares to move its exosome-based tissue repair technology into clinical trials. The Bengaluru- and San Carlos-based company is advancing its lead program, Kuragenx, a regenerative “liquid cornea” designed to restore vision in patients with corneal opacity.
Pandorum has built its platform around what it describes as “programmable regenerative medicine.” The company is developing tunable regenerative exosome therapies intended to shift damaged or diseased tissue away from persistent inflammatory and fibrotic states and back toward functional recovery.
“Just like the Ship of Theseus, the human body is constantly being rebuilt,” said Pandorum CEO Dr Tuhin Bhowmick, describing the company’s approach as “restoring biological memory.”
“Our approach treats tissue health, disease, and degeneration as a navigational challenge within an information-constrained biological landscape,” he added.
With an initial focus is on ocular surface disease, Kuragenx is being developed for corneal opacity conditions including Stevens–Johnson Syndrome and neurotrophic keratitis. The company claims its pre-clinical studies have demonstrated the therapy promotes scarless regeneration of cornea tissue and restores vision in animal models.
According to Pandorum, the same underlying capability to modulate tissue state could translate across organs, and the company is also working to extend its platform toward systemic inflammatory and degenerative diseases, including those affecting the lung, liver and nervous systems.
The latest funding round, led by Protons Corporate, follows an $11million pre-Series B financing announced in 2024. This new financing is intended to support the company’s clinical translation efforts while scaling its global manufacturing capabilities.
“This funding would enable us to translate breakthrough science into programmable, disease-modifying therapies, beginning with single-tissue applications and scaling to multi-tissue repair, aligned with Pandorum’s vision – to heal fast and age slow,” said Tuhin.
