Congratulations, BioAge! (NASDAQ: BIOA)

Congratulations to Kristen Fortney, Eric Morgen, and the entire BioAge team on this week’s IPO!

BioAge is now a clinical-stage drug company developing therapeutic product candidates for metabolic diseases, such as obesity, by targeting the biology of human aging. The company’s differentiated discovery platform includes access to unique human datasets and has enabled it to uncover promising targets associated with aging and metabolic disease. 

BioAge’s lead product candidate is an orally-available, small molecule drug that offers the potential to drive improvements in weight loss and body composition in obese patients when combined with GLP-1 drugs. BioAge has also applied its platform to develop treatments for diseases driven by neuroinflammation.

Pear has a long history with BioAge and its co-founders, Kristen Fortney (CEO) and Eric Morgen (COO). I first met Kristen in 2015 when she was a postdoc at Stanford in Professor Stuart Kim’s lab, where she studied the genetics of extreme human longevity.  That year, Pear invested in BioAge’s initial seed financing, and we have gone on to successively back BioAge at every subsequent round, including the most recent Series D round. 

We’re incredibly proud of the team for making their public market debut today. The financing will help BioAge advance the clinical development of its existing pipeline, with the assessment of its lead product candidate in obesity in two separate Phase 2 studies – the first of which already kicked off this past July. 

This is also a moment to celebrate Kristen as a trailblazing CEO. Building a company is extremely difficult and Kristen’s leadership through ups and downs is commendable. Kristen had a clear vision from day one, surrounded herself by an incredible team from the beginning, and persevered against challenges.

I am delighted to have Kristen be our first female led IPO at Pear. In the tech industry, there still aren’t enough women running companies, and this is a real opportunity to celebrate that more women are rising through the ranks. In the 200+ year history of the NASDAQ, only 41 companies have been founded and led by women. We’re so pleased that this week, that number became 42. Congratulations, Kristen!