Lupus Ventures

Nishant Rastogi is Managing Director of Lupus Ventures, the venture investment fund of the Lupus Research Alliance, and a member of its Investment Committee. He leads all investment activities, including sourcing, evaluating, and structuring deals; managing the portfolio; overseeing fund operations, team recruitment, and business development and coordinating closely with the Investment Committee and Scientific Advisory Board. Rastogi brings more than a decade of experience in venture capital and private equity across life sciences. He has served as a Board Director and operating partner for multiple biotech and medtech companies. He has advised disease research foundations on venture fund formation and the role of philanthropy and private investment in advancing new medicines and health equity. He holds degrees from Dartmouth and Northwestern as well as certificates from Harvard and Yale.

Why Lupus Has Historically Lagged in Innovation

Lupus has historically lagged behind other autoimmune diseases in innovation for the following reasons:

• First, lupus is an incredibly heterogeneous and complex disease – patients can present with different symptoms, and there can be other underlying causes or triggers, making it difficult to diagnose and treat.

• Second, as noted above, there are inherent clinical development challenges. There is no ‘gold standard,’ and trial designs have varied with respect to inclusion/exclusion criteria and efficacy parameters. Enrollment has also been challenging. Some of this has begun to be addressed by advances in precision medicine, which have led to further patient segmentation, by advocacy and interactions with the FDA to align on efficacy measures, and by efforts to reduce patient burden and improve patient-centricity within trials.

• Third, the industry follows precedent. Before 2025, only three drugs had been approved explicitly for lupus, which may also discourage some biotechs from pursuing lupus as an indication, as the path to development is less well established.

Ultimately, the scientific and clinical complexity of lupus has historically steered research & development and investment toward other diseases with clearer, more predictable development paths. But the tide is turning.

Today, more than 140 therapies are in clinical trials across 120 companies. The Lupus Research Alliance has helped lay this groundwork by investing over $284 million in lupus research through 650+ research grants and by having its clinical affiliate, Lupus Therapeutics, involved in 25–30 percent of active lupus trials.

Further investment can contribute to meaningful change. Mission‑driven, indication-specific venture capital can de‑risk promising science, support and accelerate viable opportunities, and bring more investors and industry partners into the field.

Investment Gaps in Autoimmune Disease Innovation

Based on my initial experience, I believe the biggest investment gaps in autoimmune disease innovation today are within diagnostics and cell therapy.

Diagnostics are chronically underinvested in across all indications due to the long-term investment and data required for commercial reimbursement and uptake. For example, health systems, insurers, and clinicians may be slow to adopt a new diagnostic because it initially introduces additional costs and workflow delays, unless long-term data support its use and benefits relative to the standard of care. As a mission-driven fund that can take long-term views and commercial risk, I see diagnostics as a key area of focus for Lupus Ventures, along with biomarker identification and its use in diagnostics and drug development.

“We plan to bring this collective experience not only to support companies with capital but also to provide strategic guidance that helps them progress efficiently at every phase of development.”

Secondly, cell therapy has shown tremendous promise in early studies. Treatment of autoimmune conditions is shifting from ‘immune suppression’ to ‘immune reset’ or ‘immune tolerance.’ While there is an abundance of biotechs developing allogeneic, autologous, and in vivo CAR T therapies, the VC industry has historically shied away from cell therapy as a modality due to limited long-term data, potential safety concerns, manufacturing challenges, regulatory policies, and price/reimbursement risks. However, in recent years, Pharma has been more acquisitive, acquiring in vivo CAR T platforms, which may renew venture investment as the modality becomes more advanced and de-risked.

Focus Areas for Lupus Ventures

We’re initially casting a wide net across diagnostics and treatments across various stages of development and modalities. The only commonality is that they all must link to potentially improving the standard of care in lupus. This could be companies with an explicit focus on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or early immunology companies that have not yet identified their lead indication but need funding to support the development of a clinic-ready molecule that could one day be used in lupus. We are open to early-stage programs and being the only investor, as well as later-stage deals where Lupus Ventures can potentially lead or join a syndicated financing round.

We are currently building our pipeline by identifying opportunities through our network of VCs, bankers, academic researchers, clinicians, and partners, while leveraging the substantial expertise of the Lupus Research Alliance and Lupus Therapeutics. We plan to bring this collective experience not only to support companies with capital but also to provide strategic guidance that helps them progress efficiently at every phase of development.

The Role of Venture-Backed Innovation in the Next Decade

Venture philanthropy plays an essential role in shaping care and furthering innovation. I’ve had the privilege of being an investor at both a philanthropic fund, Broadview Ventures, earlier in my career, and a traditional fund, New Rhein Healthcare, most recently. Both types of funds play a role in advancing medicines for patients.

Venture philanthropy specifically serves to de-risk high-potential scientific hypotheses that would otherwise not progress due to a lack of funding. It also enables investment into underfunded areas and modalities, such as diagnostics, as I mentioned earlier. Disease-specific venture philanthropy, like Lupus Ventures, brings specialized expertise to venture capital, enabling investors to provide not only dollars but also access to international expertise in lupus science, drug development, and industry connections.

Over the next decade, organizations like the Lupus Research Alliance and Lupus Ventures can:

1. Advance high-potential science that otherwise would go unfunded

2. Convene an unmatched bench of leading scientific, clinical, and industry experts in lupus

3. Catalyze additional investment in lupus – working closely or co-investing with institutional VC funds interested in lupus, and helping reduce historical barriers to lupus drug development.