Fortitude Biomedicines

About Fortitude Biomedicines

Fortitude Biomedicines is a private biotechnology company, headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, that launched in January 2026 with $13 million in seed financing. The company focuses on developing next-generation treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer through two main approaches: immune cell-targeting biologics and a proprietary antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform called GLUE-DAC™.

The company was co-founded by Jesse Chen, Ph.D., and Professor Jin Wang, Ph.D. Dr. Chen, a serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded TRIANA Biomedicines and Avilar Therapeutics, serves as the President and CEO. His nearly two decades of experience span from early discovery to preclinical development. Dr. Wang is the Director at the Center for NexGen Therapeutics and a Professor in Pharmacology at Baylor College of Medicine, where the GLUE-DAC™ platform was originally developed in his research laboratory.

Fortitude's core technology, GLUE-DAC™, integrates the precision of ADCs with the catalytic power of targeted protein degradation using proprietary molecular glue payloads. This approach aims to address significant challenges in the current ADC landscape, such as treatment resistance, by offering new mechanisms of action. The platform is designed to expand the therapeutic window of ADCs, overcome resistance, and target previously inaccessible disease-related proteins. The company's business model centers on advancing its pipeline of biologics and ADCs. The initial seed funding, co-led by K2 Bio Partners, Shanghai Healthcare Angel Capital (SHAC), and Elikon Venture, is being used to support the lead immune cell-targeting biologic program through Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies.

The company's pipeline includes programs in the discovery stage for both pathogenic immune cell-mediated diseases and cancer. Its most advanced program is FORT-202, a bispecific antibody, while a DAC codenamed FORT-101 is in the discovery stage for oncology.