Flagship Pioneering Announces Agreement Between Pioneering Medicines and Pfizer to Discover Potential Novel, Selective Inhibitors for Autoimmune Disease
Collaboration leverages Logica, a platform offering from Valo Health and Charles River that directly translates biological insights into optimized small molecules
Sixth agreement signed under strategic partnership between Flagship Pioneering and Pfizer to accelerate discovery of innovative compounds that may become medicines targeting unmet needs
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Pioneering, the bioplatform innovation company, today announced an agreement between Pioneering Medicines, Flagship's in-house drug discovery and development unit, and Pfizer, to discover compounds which may lead to the development of next-generation therapeutics for autoimmune diseases.
The collaboration will engage Charles River to utilize Logica®, a unique platform offering from Valo Health, a Flagship-founded company, to identify advanceable small molecule leads. Logica translates biological insights into optimized preclinical assets by leveraging Valo Health's AI-powered Opal Computational Platform and Charles River's leading drug discovery expertise.
"Autoimmune diseases impose a substantial health burden on patients, and ongoing unmet need in the management of these conditions is driving a strong demand for more effective, safer and more personalized treatment options," said Paul Biondi, President, Pioneering Medicines, and Managing Partner, Flagship Pioneering. "Through the power of our unique partnership model with Pfizer, we will leverage Logica to help address this gap with a promising novel approach to identifying disease-modifying candidate molecules that could positively impact the current treatment landscape for these complex and diverse conditions."
This agreement represents the sixth collaboration signed under the broader strategic partnership between Flagship Pioneering and Pfizer to create a new pipeline of innovative assets, following programs announced with Flagship companies ProFound Therapeutics, Quotient Therapeutics, Montai Therapeutics, and Ampersand Biomedicines.
"We are excited to bring the power of the Logica platform – powered by Valo and Charles River – to discover potential investigational therapies for patients suffering from autoimmune diseases," said Professor Julie Frearson, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Charles River. "Logica's proprietary AI small molecule drug discovery platform is revolutionizing the drug discovery process, and we look forward to working with the joint team at Pioneering Medicines and Pfizer to accelerate understanding of the molecular pathways involved in these diseases to develop more targeted and effective therapies for patients."
About Flagship Pioneering and Pioneering Medicines
Flagship Pioneering invents and builds bioplatform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $60 billion in aggregate value. Flagship is operating with $14 billion of assets under management as of its latest capital raise, announced in July 2024. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises over 40 companies, including Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FHTX), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ:SANA), Generate Biomedicines, Inari, Indigo Agriculture, and Tessera Therapeutics.
Pioneering Medicines, Flagship Pioneering's in house drug development unit, is dedicated to conceiving and developing a broad portfolio of life-changing treatments for patients built from Flagship's innovative platforms. Harnessing the drug development expertise of its team together with the power of Flagship's multiple scientific platforms, Pioneering Medicines explores and identifies new product concepts which are then advanced jointly with Flagship's bioplatform companies. Within Flagship's Innovation Supply Chain partnerships, Pioneering Medicines works with external collaborators to apply its unique approach to partners' R&D priorities. These partnerships are highly co-creative strategic alliances that accelerate therapeutic innovation by bringing together partners spanning the full spectrum of drug discovery, development, and production.
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SOURCE Flagship Pioneering