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Founders: Meng Deng, Karen Wurster
Established: 2016
Top executives:
Karen Wurster, CEO
Keith Johns, chief operating officer
Sumitra Ghate, senior vice president for clinical development and global regulatory affairs
Marco Verwijs, chief technical officer
Equity raised: $4 million in seed funding (including $2 million in convertible notes); now in a $12 million Series A equity raise, with $8 million raised so far
2024 revenue: none
Projected 2025 revenue: none
Employees: 8
Location: Indianapolis
Affiliations: Co-founder Meng Deng is an associate professor at Purdue University, where he developed technology key to Adipo’s work. The company also partners with the Indiana University School of Medicine to conduct studies in collaboration with professor
Robert Considine.
Patents: several granted and one pending in the United States
What does the company do? Adipo is developing a new approach to obesity treatment that converts subcutaneous white fat into healthier, energy-burning brown fat. The company said that in rodents, “browning” leads to increased resting metabolism, weight loss, improved glucose control and muscle preservation. “The treatment targets declines in resting metabolic rate associated with yo-yo dieting, aging-related muscle loss and hormonal changes,” Adipo says.
What problem is it trying to solve? The company says leading weight-loss therapies on the market today focus on appetite suppression to reduce a person’s daily caloric intake, but that can lead to muscle loss and slowed metabolism. The challenge is finding products that work by increasing energy expenditure, which Adipo is working on.
Latest news: In November, Adipo Therapeutics presented at the annual meeting of The Obesity Society its latest research on the treatment of ex-vivo human tissue—meaning tissue that has been removed from the body—that demonstrates the potential for an eventual therapy to increase energy expenditure. The company plans to present an update of that work at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in June in Chicago.
Why Adipo Therapeutics made the list: Adipo’s lead product is in late preclinical development, with its first human doses planned for 2026. Also, Adipo is led by seasoned executives from Eli Lilly and Co., and its team brings an average of 25 years of experience in the industry to the effort.•
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