Familiar Information

Familiar Therapeutics is a biotechnology company bringing medicines first developed for people to dogs and cats. Dogs and cats develop many of the same diseases as people, often driven by the same biology. Human medicine has made huge advances in treating those diseases, but very little of that progress has reached pets, and for many serious conditions they have very few or no options. Our goal is to give vets and pet owners proven, FDA-approved, disease-modifying treatments for serious conditions in dogs and cats. We partner with pharma and biotech companies on drugs developed for people, then do the translation and veterinary development work through FDA approval and commercialization. Because these drugs have validated targets and often extensive safety and manufacturing data, we expect to move 4-5 times faster than traditional animal drug development. Our pipeline includes four lead programs and nine earlier-stage programs across neurology, cardiology, respiratory disease, immunology and oncology. Our team includes senior animal health drug developers from companies such as Zoetis, Elanco and Bayer Animal Health, and a scientific advisory board of veterinary specialists, practicing veterinarians and animal health researchers. Familiar was founded in 2026 by Elizabeth Iorns and Dan Knox and is backed by Pioneer Fund, Icehouse Ventures and BreakTHRU. We’re based in Redwood City, California.