What Cleara Biotech does

Cleara Biotech B.V. is a private preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical R&D company headquartered in Utrecht, the Netherlands, founded in 2018 through a joint effort by Apollo Health Ventures and Dr. Peter de Keizer. The company develops D-amino acid peptide therapeutics designed to selectively eliminate p53-impaired ("scarred" or senescent) cells by binding multi-phosphorylated p53 (phosphorylated on residues including S46, T55 and S392) and inducing transcription-independent, mutation-site-agnostic apoptosis. Its lead development candidate, CL04183 (nominated in 2023), has demonstrated activity in 2D cell, 3D organoid and mouse in vivo models of metastatic colorectal cancer, triple-negative breast cancer and high-grade serous ovarian cancer, alongside preclinical signals in neurodegeneration, liver fibrosis and cardiovascular disease; CL04177 is a parallel optimized candidate. A proprietary companion-diagnostic multiplexing technology built around biomarkers such as pS392-p53 supports patient stratification, with >25% of mCRC, TNBC and HGSOC patients reported as biomarker-positive candidates.

The business model is pre-revenue R&D: Cleara has completed GLP-Tox studies in rats and non-human primates in 2025 with GMP-grade Drug Substance work completed, and is advancing toward a Clinical Trial Application. The company monetizes through Series-A financing or pharmaceutical partnering/licensing transactions rather than direct product sales, targeting large pharma counterparties for Phase 1a/1b execution and eventual commercialization. Its go-to-market is enterprise BD/licensing, supported by a senior clinical team (CMO Nick Sarlis, Chairman Angelos Stergiou) and an experienced technical operations function. Scientific foundation rests on long-term license and collaboration agreements with University Medical Center Utrecht (principal partner since 2018), UMC Groningen and Medical University of Graz, supplemented by two Dutch public-private initiatives (ZonMw/Health~Holland Voila/SMARTage in 2019 and TASCFORCE in 2022).

Name

Cleara Biotech

Legal name

Cleara Biotech B.V.

Website

https://clearabiotech.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Cleara Biotech is a private preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing D-amino acid peptide therapeutics that selectively eliminate p53-impaired cancer and senescent cells, with lead candidate CL04183 advancing toward Phase 1 clinical trials.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biopharmaceutical R&D

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Biological Product (except Diagnostic) Manufacturing (325414)

SIC

Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834), In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances (2835)

akta.pro primary industry

Oncology Diagnostics (tumor profiling, MRD, liquid biopsy) (HLAAALAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation) (HLAAAIAI), Genomic & Multi-Omic Biomarkers (NGS panels, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) (HLAAAMAJ)

Keywords

• Senolytic therapeutics
• Cancer peptide development
• Biopharmaceutical R&D
• D-amino acid peptides
• Companion diagnostic biomarkers

Headquarters

HQ city

Utrecht

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Pre-revenue R&D biotech: Currently pre-revenue. Future revenue anticipated from Series-A financing or pharmaceutical partnering/licensing transactions as CL04183 progresses through Phase 1a/1b clinical trials in oncology, neurodegeneration, liver fibrosis, and cardiovascular indications.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Cleara Biotech is a preclinical biopharmaceutical R&D company developing proprietary D-amino acid peptide therapeutics that selectively eliminate p53-impaired ("scarred") cancer and senescent cells. Its lead development candidates, CL04183 and CL04177, induce transcription-independent, mutation-site-agnostic apoptosis in cancer cells with impaired p53 signaling and are being advanced for metastatic colorectal cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, high-grade serous ovarian cancer, and senescence-driven chronic indications (neurodegeneration, liver fibrosis, cardiovascular disease). The pipeline is paired with a proprietary pS392-p53 companion-diagnostic biomarker strategy for patient stratification.

Product overview

Cleara Biotech B.V. is a private, preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical R&D company organised as a single platform-plus-candidates architecture: a core proprietary D-amino acid peptide development pipeline that designs and optimises compounds selectively eliminating p53-impaired (including mutant-p53) cancer and senescent cells, from which its named lead development candidates CL04183 and CL04177 are derived. CL04183 has been nominated as the lead Development Candidate and is supported in parallel by a proprietary biomarker companion-diagnostic multiplexing technology used to identify biomarker-positive patients. The company's historical research foundation is the FOXO4-DRI third-generation peptide, which preceded and informed the CL04177/CL04183 programme.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CL04183
• CL04177
• Companion diagnostic biomarker technology

Quantifiable outcome

• CL04183 induces 29% overall survival increase in geriatric mice (825 days at start of treatment) in third-party experiments
• +4 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• RVO (Dutch Governmental Agency)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Company-wide due diligence by the public Dutch Governmental Agency RVO led to full endorsement of Cleara's program for preclinical development of CL04183, matched by financial support.
• ZonMw / Health~Holland Public Private Initiative 'TASCFORCE'coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022In 2022, Cleara became the main industrial partner of the TASCFORCE PPP together with independent groups at UMC Utrecht to investigate the potential of CL04183 in (colon) cancer.
• ZonMw / Health~Holland Public Private Initiative 'Voila/SMARTage'coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019In 2019, Cleara became the main industrial partner of the Voila/SMARTage Public Private Initiative, supporting senescence-related research and translation.
• UMC Utrecht (University Medical Center Utrecht)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Principal long-term collaboration and license agreement executed in 2018. UMC Utrecht is also Cleara's scientific affiliation. Dr. Peter de Keizer is an associate professor at UMC Utrecht. Independent groups at UMC Utrecht collaborate with Cleara on the TASCFORCE PPP for colon cancer.
• UMC Groningen (Dr. Marco Demaria)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Supporting collaboration and license agreement executed in 2018. UMC Groningen collaborates on senescence research underpinning Cleara's programs.
• Medical University of Graz (Prof. Tobias Madl)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Supporting collaboration and license agreement executed in 2018. Prof. Tobias Madl (Head of structural biology and scientific co-founder at Cleara) leads structural biology work at the Medical University of Graz.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Unity Biotechnology: Clinical-stage senolytic company developing small-molecule therapies (UBX0101, UBX1325) that selectively eliminate senescent cells for age-related diseases. Most directly comparable to Cleara's senolytic approach targeting senescent and p53-impaired cells, though focused on ophthalmology and musculoskeletal indications.
• Aprea Therapeutics: Clinical-stage oncology company developing eprenetapopt (APR-246), a small-molecule reactivator of mutant p53 in tumors. Closest mechanistic peer to Cleara in the p53-targeted oncology space, though using a transcription-dependent reactivation approach rather than Cleara's transcription-independent peptide strategy.
• PMV Pharma: Clinical-stage precision oncology company developing small molecules (PC14586, zoldonrasib) that restore wild-type p53 function in p53 Y220C-mutant cancers. Directly comparable oncology mechanism targeting p53 dysfunction, though focused on a specific hotspot mutation versus Cleara's mutation-site-agnostic peptide.
• Rubedo Life Sciences: Preclinical-stage senolytic company developing selective small molecules that target senescent cells implicated in age-related diseases. Closely comparable emerging senolytic peer, although Rubedo focuses on small-molecule chemistry rather than Cleara's D-amino acid peptide platform.

Emerging players

• Oisin Biotechnologies: Preclinical-stage company developing a senolytic gene therapy platform that selectively eliminates senescent cells via apoptosis induction. Comparable senescence-targeting approach but using a gene-therapy delivery mechanism rather than Cleara's peptide platform.
• BioAge Labs: Clinical-stage biotech developing therapeutics that target the biological drivers of aging, including senescence-related pathways, with an IND-stage pipeline for age-related conditions. Comparable aging/senescence therapeutic area focus, though BioAge uses small-molecule and antibody approaches.
• AgeX Therapeutics: Biotechnology company developing therapies based on cellular senescence and regenerative biology for age-related diseases. Operates in the same cellular senescence therapeutic space as Cleara, though currently focused on pluripotent stem cell-derived and telomerase-based programs.

Broad incumbents

• Zealand Pharma: Established Danish clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in peptide-based therapeutics across metabolic and rare disease indications. Comparable peptide drug development platform and modality, though targeting metabolic rather than oncology/aging indications.
• PeptiDream: Japanese clinical-stage company with a proprietary Peptide Discovery Platform System (PDPS) for identifying non-standard peptide therapeutics. Comparable peptide drug discovery platform, though partnered across multiple therapeutic areas and used primarily as a discovery engine for partners.
• Bicycle Therapeutics: Clinical-stage biotech developing bicyclic peptide (bicycles) therapeutics for oncology, with lead programs in cancer cell-killing and immune cell-engaging modalities. Closest broad incumbent in synthetic constrained peptide therapeutics with comparable clinical-stage oncology focus.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ClearaBiotech
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cleara-biotech

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cleara Biotech