Carlsbad, CA — January 7, 2026 — Leads & Copy — Palisade Bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALI) announced that the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, through its IBD Ventures program, has approved a strategic equity investment of up to $500,000 in Palisade.
The investment will support the continued clinical and mechanistic development of PALI-2108, Palisade’s lead gut-microbiota-activated PDE4 inhibitor, being advanced for fibrostenotic Crohn’s disease (FSCD) and moderate to severe ulcerative colitis (UC).
PALI-2108 is an orally administered prodrug engineered for local delivery of phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibition to the terminal ileum and colon. It is the first and only PDE4 inhibitor in development designed for targeted delivery to the terminal ileum and colon, addressing significant unmet needs in ulcerative colitis (UC) and fibrostenotic Crohn’s disease (FSCD).
According to J.D. Finley, Chief Executive Officer of Palisade Bio, the company is honored to receive this strategic equity investment from the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation through its IBD Ventures program. Finley stated that the investment represents a strong endorsement of both the scientific rationale underlying PALI-2108 and the company’s targeted, gut-restricted approach to PDE4 inhibition.
Finley added that the Foundation’s support further validates the potential of PALI-2108 to address the significant unmet needs of patients living with UC and FSCD, and that Palisade looks forward to continuing to advance this program toward the next stages of clinical development.
Andrés Hurtado Lorenzo, PhD, Senior Vice President of Translational Research and IBD Ventures at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, said the Foundation is excited to be funding and working with Palisade Bio to address major unmet needs in fibrostenotic Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, where patients still face progression to strictures and surgery and limited treatment options.
Lorenzo noted that PALI-2108 may help meet this need by directly targeting inflammation and fibrosis in the colon and ileum with limited systemic effects. He added that through the IBD Ventures program, the Foundation invests in promising, differentiated therapies like PALI-2108 to improve patient outcomes and advance innovative approaches for IBD.
The prodrug molecule is gut-restricted and pharmacologically inactive until it reaches the lower intestine, where it is cleaved by bacterial enzymes to release its active PDE4 inhibitor metabolite directly at the site of inflammation and fibrosis. This targeted and slow-release design prevents absorption through the upper gut, achieves sustained local exposure and a longer half-life that enables once-daily dosing, and is engineered to produce a blunted peak plasma concentration to improve the overall therapeutic index.
These properties are intended to maximize anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects while minimizing systemic exposure and reducing class-related tolerability issues, such as nausea and headache, that have limited systemic PDE4 inhibitors.
Palisade has completed a Phase 1a single-ascending dose, multiple-ascending dose, and food-effect study of PALI-2108, followed by a Phase 1b cohort study in UC, and is currently evaluating PALI-2108 in an ongoing Phase 1b cohort study in FSCD. Data from these studies are expected to support Phase 2 Investigational New Drug (IND) submissions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2026.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation is the leading non-profit organization focused on both research and patient support for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with the mission of curing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and of improving the quality of life of the millions of Americans living with IBD.
Palisade Bio, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing a next generation of, once daily, oral PDE4 inhibitor prodrugs designed to improve pharmacology, tolerability and convenience for patients with inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. The Company’s lead program, PALI-2108, is a locally-bioactivated PDE4 inhibitor prodrug being developed for moderate-to-severe Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and fibrostenotic Crohn’s Disease (FSCD).
In a recently reported Phase 1b trial, PALI-2108 achieved a 100% clinical response in the UC cohort, with no serious adverse events, favorable tolerability and pharmacokinetics consistent with sustained localized activation, low systemic exposure, and controlled release within the GI tract.
Palisade Bio is now advancing towards a Phase 2 clinical study in UC designed to evaluate clinical remission, response and pharmacodynamic biomarkers over 12 weeks, with an extension phase assessing maintenance of remission. In addition, the Company is preparing to initiate studies in FSCD to further characterize PALI-2108’s safety, pharmacology and therapeutic benefit across inflammatory bowel disease indications.
Contact:
Jenene Thomas
908-824-0775
PALI@jtcir.com
Source: Palisade Bio
