Flagship Pioneering, Inc.

近日，根据外媒消息，知名资本Flagship旗下的Biotech公司Sonata Therapeutics将裁员20人，这是继今年2月份以来该公司的第二次裁员。Flagship作为孵育出Moderna的知名资本近年来享誉世界，然而近年来，该资本旗下公司却频频传出裁员，倒闭等负面消息。 此次裁员涉及多位公司高管，CEO Volker Herrmann也在此次裁员风波中离职。 Sonata Therapeutics Sonata Therapeutics由两家Flagship孵化的Inzen Therapeutics和Cygnal Therapeutics合并而成。 Inzen和Cygnal均成立于2017年，Inzen主要开发针对细胞更新代谢产物的新疗法。2018年Inzen完成了A轮融资，Flagship出资2000万美元。 Cygnal则致力于神经外生物学和外围神经系统疗法的开发。Cygnal公司CEO是Pearl Huang，她同时也是 Flagship Pioneering 的风险合伙人（同时也是前百济神州联合创始人）。2019年，Cygnal获得6500万美元融资，从“隐身状态”退出，这笔融资也主要来自Flagship Pioneering。在公司合并完成后Pearl Huang就加入了有着诺华背景的Dunad Therapeutics担任CEO。 考虑到Sonata Therapeutics本身以“网状药物”为卖点，旨在重编程患者细胞，大概率合并后还是以Inzen Therapeutics为主体。 有趣的是Inzen当时的CEO就是Volker Herrmann，算是这家公司的创立初始成员。 不过，较为令人意外的是，似乎Flagship页面已经删除了Volker Herrmann作为合伙人的页面，这可能意味着这位CEO可能不再在Flagship系中担任任何职务。

▎药明康德内容团队编辑 Flagship Pioneering今日宣布旗下Ampersand Biomedicines和Montai Therapeutics已与辉瑞（Pfizer）签署合作协议，共同发现可能进一步开发为肥胖症和非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）疗法的靶向分子。这两个疾病领域是辉瑞的优先研究方向。此次合作是Flagship与辉瑞在2023年7月宣布达成战略合作伙伴关系后发起的最新合作项目之一，并将利用辉瑞在创新靶向疗法早期发现和开发方面的深厚专业知识。 Ampersand利用其计算驱动的AND平台来设计只在需要的身体部位发挥作用的生物制品。名为AND-Body的疗法被设计用于有效靶向病变部位，而不影响健康组织或细胞。作为Flagship与辉瑞合作的一部分，Ampersand将利用其AND平台组织选择性靶向代谢通路，从而提供一种强有力的方法，潜在改善代谢健康。 Montai的CONECTA平台集成了前沿计算工具，解析难以成药的生物通路与一种被称为Anthromolecules的化学多样性新型小分子解决方案之间的联系。Montai已构建了一个包含超过1亿种Anthromolecules及其衍生物的文库，这些分子的化学结构与传统药物发现领域中的化学结构大不相同。这些分子来源于传统药物、食物及其代谢产物，其化学骨架可能以更高的精准性和选择性作用于驱动慢性疾病的生物通路。作为Flagship与辉瑞合作的一部分，Montai将利用其CONECTA平台针对驱动癌细胞生长和存活的致癌机制，发现具有潜力进一步开发为肺癌疗法的新型小分子。 Ampersand和Montai的合作协议紧随此前辉瑞与ProFound Therapeutics和Quotient Therapeutics达成的合作协议，标志着Flagship与辉瑞伙伴关系的持续推进。Flagship旗下的药物发现和开发部门Pioneering Medicines负责领导与辉瑞的合作，包括推动探索过程，快速发掘基于Flagship多样化生物平台和技术的新药研发项目。 ▲欲了解更多前沿技术在生物医药产业中的应用，请长按扫描上方二维码，即可访问“药明直播间”，观看相关话题的直播讨论与精彩回放 参考资料： [1] Flagship Pioneering Announces Two New Agreements with Ampersand Biomedicines and Montai Therapeutics Under its Strategic Partnership with Pfizer. Retrieved November 20, 2024, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flagship-pioneering-announces-two-new-agreements-with-ampersand-biomedicines-and-montai-therapeutics-under-its-strategic-partnership-with-pfizer-302310557.html 免责声明：药明康德内容团队专注介绍全球生物医药健康研究进展。本文仅作信息交流之目的，文中观点不代表药明康德立场，亦不代表药明康德支持或反对文中观点。本文也不是治疗方案推荐。如需获得治疗方案指导，请前往正规医院就诊。 版权说明：本文来自药明康德内容团队，欢迎个人转发至朋友圈，谢绝媒体或机构未经授权以任何形式转载至其他平台。转载授权请在「药明康德」微信公众号回复“转载”，获取转载须知。 分享，点赞，在看，聚焦全球生物医药健康创新

Pfizer is enlisting another Flagship startup to help it create new obesity medicines. After June’s ProFound Therapeutics tie-up , Pfizer will work with the incubator’s Ampersand Biomedicines in the hunt for new biologics for obesity. The New York pharmaceutical company is also tapping into Flagship-founded Montai Therapeutics to find new small molecules for potentially treating lung cancer, the companies said Wednesday morning. The two pacts are part of Pfizer’s broader alliance with the Cambridge, MA-based Flagship, which recently reeled in about $3.6 billion in new funds as pharma partnerships become a “ bigger and bigger deal .” Pfizer has had an uneven few years in obesity, particularly with its danuglipron program . Last month, it revealed more details about its other early-stage bets: a GIP antagonist and a once-daily oral GLP-1. Ampersand hopes to help Pfizer create obesity treatments that go to a specific site in the body, rather than hitting healthy tissues or cells, so as to avoid side effects — like muscle loss and gastrointestinal concerns — and to make the drugs more potent. The startup, which emerged with $50 million in March 2023, uses computational methods to find “addresses” for drugs to go to and then creates an “actuator” to carry out the therapeutic function, Flagship general partner Avak Kahvejian told Endpoints News last year. In January, it bought antibody discovery tech startup AbCheck, an Affimed subsidiary, for $6 million. “We have addresses in virtually every tissue in the body, so you could think about virtually any disease,” CEO Jason Gardner said in an interview. Ampersand will likely make multiple other industry collaborations, he said, and it could form more tie-ups around obesity. It’s early days with the Pfizer partnership, and Gardner declined to disclose the specific pathway tissue that they’re looking at. Flagship’s work in obesity has also attracted the attention of Novo Nordisk. Its companies Metaphore Biotechnologies and Omega Therapeutics have both formed partnerships with the Danish drugmaker. In cancer, Pfizer’s new partnership with Montai will look at mechanisms that lead to lung cancer cell growth and find new small molecules that can potentially be turned into therapies. Pfizer has made oncology a core focus following its $43 billion Seagen acquisition last year. Montai emerged with $50 million in December 2022 and a high-profile CEO, Margo Georgiadis, who previously led Google’s Americas division and steered Ancestry.com to a nearly $5 billion exit to Blackstone. The startup scours through molecules already consumed by humans via foods, supplements and herbal medicines. Its computational tools have brought together nearly 200 million so-called “Anthromolecules” and their derivatives, Georgiadis said. The company’s name means “climbing mountains with AI,” she said. Georgiadis said in an interview that the company is trying to “create the first machine learning that enables us to decode that language of chemistry and how it connects to our biology.” “By doing that, it enables us to take advantage of this unbelievably rich and diverse chemistry set that pharma had kind of put to the side,” she said. “It’s how drug development started. It’s a super-proven source of drugs, but it was perceived as complex, hard to make, the challenges with polypharmacology.” Montai was working on a small molecule agonist for an undisclosed pathway in inflammation and immunology when Pfizer realized an antagonist of that pathway could be applied in lung cancer, Georgiadis said. The 65-employee company has created an internal pipeline of nine I&I therapies that are transcription factors and biologic replacements in dermatology, gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases, she said. The company is “developing partnerships” with more companies, Georgiadis said, as Montai’s work applies across immunology, oncology, neuro-inflammation and other areas.