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Casting light on underserved populations

Chronic hepatitis D (CHD) and chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have been in the shadows of other infectious diseases for too long.

CHD is the most severe form of viral hepatitis

~7 million people globally and ~100,000 in the US, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK are affected by chronic hepatitis D (CHD). ~50% of those diagnosed with CHD will die of liver-related causes within 10 years. CHD can only occur in patients who have CHB. People with CHD have a 3x higher risk of developing cirrhosis and 2x higher risk of death compared to individuals with CHB alone.

Pioneering a monotherapy approach for CHD

There are no approved treatments for CHD in the US and in most countries around the world. Our lead asset brelovitug (BJT-778) is being investigated as a potential monotherapy chronic treatment for CHD.

CHB is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world

~250 million people globally and ~2 million people in the US are chronically infected with CHB, increasing their risk of cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. ~820,000 deaths globally each year are associated with CHB.

Combination treatment to enable finite treatment and enhance functional cure rates 

Current treatments for CHB only suppress viral replication, while viral protein expression continues. For this reason, functional cure is achieved in fewer than 10% of cases. We are investigating combination strategies built on brelovitug (BJT-778) with the goal of improving the functional cure rate for CHB.

Our pipeline

Our pipeline includes five clinical programs in chronic hepatitis D, chronic hepatitis B and additional undisclosed liver diseases with significant unmet needs.

View Pipeline
Keting Chu

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Keting Chu is an experienced biotech executive, entrepreneur and life science venture investor with a broad range of experiences in therapeutic development in both large and small biotechnology companies and venture investments.

Prior to founding Bluejay, Keting was a Partner and a Venture partner at LYFE Capital. Working with the team in Lyfe capital, Keting helped to close $550M Lyfe Capital Fund III and invested in Ansun Biopharm, Pliant Therapeutics and Tempest Therapeutics. Pliant and Tempest went IPO in NASDAQ successfully in 2020 and 2021. Keting was previously a venture partner in Apple Tree Partners briefly. Before joining Apple Tree Partners, Keting spent five years as VP, Research TAP at The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). There she was responsible for venture philanthropy, also known as the Therapy Acceleration program. At LLS, Keting led the investment into Celator, Stemline, Constellation, Affimed, ArgenX, Kite Pharma, Kiadis, OncoPep, Valor and a number of projects in academic institutions with the focus on proof-of-concept (POC) studies in patients. Three of the nine companies received “Breakthrough” designation by the FDA in 2016 after positive proof-of-concept studies. Celator was acquired by Jazz Pharma for $1.5B, Kite by Gilead for $12B and Stemline by Menarini for $677M. Three NDAs, by Celator, Kite and Stemline, were approved by the US FDA successfully. Prior to LLS, Keting was the CEO of Mission Therapeutics and the Co-Founder, President and CEO of DigitAB, Inc. and BioCubed Corporation. For her first startup company, Five Prime Therapeutics, Keting was Vice President of Biology and Head of R&D where she built the R&D strategy and team, established the technology platform and generated a product pipeline. Prior to Five Prime, Keting was the Head of Immunotherapy and Antibody Therapeutics Division at Chiron Corporation, where she engaged in preclinical and clinical developments of protein, DNA-based, and small molecule therapeutics for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Three cancer therapeutic antibodies that keting led the team from discovery to phase I clinical trials are in phase II and III testing now.

Keting received her MD in Sun Yat-Sen Medical University where she specialized in infectious diseases in China, and Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). She also conducted her postdoctoral training at Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF.