For decades, osteoporosis treatment has forced patients into an impossible choice: Accept therapies with serious safety risks or live with progressive fragility. Skeletalis, which just raised $8M led by Pillar VC, believes that paradigm is about to change.
The Boston-based company is developing bone-targeted therapeutics that deliver localized treatment directly to the skeleton while minimizing systemic exposure – addressing safety concerns that have long plagued existing therapies.
“Osteoporosis treatment is ripe for innovation,” said Ben Swanson, DDS, PhD, founder and CEO of Skeletalis. “Current therapies are limited by serious side effects that compromise safety, adherence, and long-term efficacy. At Skeletalis, we’re developing precision medicine with tissue and cell specificity, enabling more targeted intervention in osteoporosis progression.”
The Hidden Impact
Osteoporosis affects over 10 million Americans, with post-menopausal women making up 70% of cases. Twenty percent of hip fracture patients die within the first year. Over 80% become disabled. The disease generates over $50 billion in annual U.S. healthcare costs, yet innovation has been stalled by regulatory requirements demanding massive fracture-based trials that could take years and cost hundreds of millions.
“After their first fracture, many of these women are not coming back home. They’re in rehab facilities,” explains Dr. Ben Swanson, founder and CEO of Skeletalis. “First fractures are tied to cognitive decline, onset of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and increased risk of other comorbidities.”
What makes this particularly devastating is the loss of independence and autonomy – women who were living full, active lives suddenly find themselves unable to return to their homes and communities. This reality has driven Swanson’s five-year journey developing alternative approaches.
The landscape shifted dramatically with the FDA’s SABRE decision earlier this year, which recognizes bone mineral density as a valid endpoint for drug approval rather than requiring fracture-based trials.
“By measuring bone mineral density, we can actually track the progression of disease rather than the failure of treatment,” notes Swanson. “We can really understand the progression of disease and think more seriously about how to prevent it.”
This regulatory reform arrives as conversations about menopause become more open, creating an ideal time to bring this type of solution to patients.
Reimagining Bone as Platform
During his PhD at the University of Michigan, Swanson began exploring whether bone itself could become a drug delivery platform. The company’s resulting Oasis technology coats the bone surface with therapeutic molecules, creating targeted treatment that limits exposure elsewhere in the body.
“The robustness and rigidity of bone actually comes from the way it’s structured,” Swanson explains. “The fact that we were able to preserve that internal structure is very exciting.”
This work earned him the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Young Investigator Award in 2024, sparking interest from patient advocates, clinicians, and investors who recognized the potential for transformation in a field stagnant for decades.
The $8M round, which is led by Pillar VC with participation from KdT Ventures, age1 and Slocum Management, funds development of lead candidate SKE-001 through critical milestones. Skeletalis has assembled a team of veterans who’ve touched virtually every osteoporosis asset reaching the clinic over three decades.
Co-founder Dr. Colin Greineder brings expertise as an emergency medicine physician and pharmacologist. Together, the team combines pharmaceutical experience with fresh perspectives on drug delivery.
“From the time I wanted to pursue medicine, I was curious about how medicines were made,” Swanson reflects. “I became fascinated with this idea that we can develop drugs that tell the body exactly how to heal.”
While the platform has potential across degenerative bone diseases from periodontitis to pediatric conditions, Skeletalis has deliberately centered its approach on post-menopausal osteoporosis, which accounts for the vast majority of cases.
“The conversation has naturally opened up about how we preserve the integrity of our bodies and skeleton throughout aging,” says Swanson, noting how shifting attitudes toward menopause create demand for therapies without compromise.
Osteoporosis Treatment Beyond Compromise
Thomas de Vlaam, Partner at Pillar VC who led the round, sees Skeletalis addressing a long-apparent need: “The company is developing a therapy that has the potential to finally offer patients a treatment option that does not come with a major concession.”
For millions of post-menopausal women, this represents a fundamental shift. Rather than accepting diminishing returns or risking rare but serious complications, targeted therapy offers treatment designed from the ground up to work with the body’s existing architecture.
As regulatory barriers fall and women’s health investment accelerates, Skeletalis exemplifies a new generation of companies refusing to accept that patients must compromise. The question isn’t whether better treatments are possible – it’s how quickly they can reach those who need them.
