 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| |
| Industry | Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical |
| Predecessor | Forge, Inc. |
| Founded | 2011 in California, U.S. |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of employees | 70 (2018) |
| Website | unitybiotechnology |
Unity Biotechnology, Inc. was a publicly traded American biotechnology company that develops drugs that target senescent cells. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The company ceased operations in 2025. [6]
Unity BioTechnologies, a company backed by Jeff Bezos and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, [7] was co-founded in March 2009 by Nathaniel David, Jan Van Deursen, Judith Campisi, and Daohong Zhou. [8]
The company was founded under the name Forge, Inc., but changed its name to Unity BioTechnologies in January 2015. [9]
Anirvan Ghosh joined Unity in 2020 as the company’s CEO. That same year, Nathaniel stepped down as president but remained a member of the board. [10]
On May 3, 2018, the company went public on the Nasdaq exchange, raising $85 million at a market capitalization of $700 million. [11] [12] Unity Biotechnology shares dropped 60% on August 17, 2020, after the company reported disappointing results from a clinical trial involving its then lead drug candidate, UBX0101, in patients with moderate-to-severe painful osteoarthritis. [13]
The company's products in development include UBX1325, which targets Bcl-xL, a mechanism to eliminate senescent cells in age-related eye diseases (in Phase 2 clinical trials for diabetic macular edema as of October 2023). [14] In July 2022, the company reported positive results from its Phase 1 study. [15] In April 2023, the company then reported results from its Phase 2 study demonstrating that a single injection of UBX1325 resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in vision through 48 weeks. [16] They also include UBX 1967, a preclinical product targeting ophthalmologic diseases. [17] [12] [18] Both products are senolytic medicines.