Pfizer Partners with Renowned Life Sciences VC to Build Pipeline Projected to be Worth $7 Billion

On July 18, Pfizer announced a partnership with Flagship Pioneering, a renowned life sciences venture capital company to create a new pipeline of innovative medicines that could be worth up to $7 billion. Flagship and Pfizer will each invest $50 million upfront to jointly explore opportunities to develop 10 single-asset programs by leveraging Flagship’s ecosystem of over 40 human health companies and multiple biotechnology platforms.

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Top-tier VC Nurturing Multiple Biotech Companies Resulting in Over $90 Billion in Aggregate Market Value

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flagship Pioneering is committed to founding, funding, and fostering first-in-category bioplatform companies that can transform human health and enhance environmental sustainability. With a team of 350 core members, the VC company invents platforms to form the basis of startups, which are nurtured with the eventual goal of spinning out as standalone biotech companies.

Launched in 2000 and best known for its vital role in backing Moderna and the technology of mRNA vaccine development against the COVID-19 pandemic, Flagship has applied its unique  hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. 

Creating a Unique Biotech Ecosystem, Covering Cutting-Edge Technology Areas

To date, Flagship has deployed over $3.4 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $26 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The Flagship ecosystem currently consists of 45 cutting-edge life sciences companies spanning multiple technologies and disease areas. Apart from Moderna, other notable examples include Denali Therapeutics (therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases),  Omega Therapeutics (mRNA therapeutics as programmable epigenetic medicines), Alltrna (tRNA therapeutics), and Apriori Bio (AI-assisted vaccine and antibody development).

Developing Innovative Drugs to Address Unmet Medical Needs

Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer and Flagship will invest a total of $100 million upfront to explore opportunities of developing 10 single-asset programs within Pfizer’s core strategic areas of interest and addressing unmet needs, including in broad patient populations. Regarding the future R&D endeavor, Pfizer’s team will work closely with Pioneering Medicines, a strategic initiative within Flagship Pioneering, while the latter will lead the exploration process to drive rapid potential portfolio creation. Apart from Pfizer, it is noteworthy that Pioneering Medicines is also currently in strategic partnerships with Novo Nordisk and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to jointly conceive medicine concepts and develop therapeutics that address the unmet needs by combining their R&D priorities and applying Flagship’s innovative bioplatforms.

In terms of subsequent funding and investment for the proposed pipeline, Pfizer and Flagship will determine what programs will move forward into development together. Afterwards, Pfizer will fund the selected development programs and have the option to acquire each of them. Upon successful commercialization of each program, Flagship and its bioplatform companies may receive milestone payments and royalties of up to $700 million.

Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer and President, Worldwide Research, Development and Medical, considered the collaboration as an exciting opportunity to translate early-stage innovation to potential medicines by combining Pfizer’s development and regulatory strength and Flagship’s diverse portfolio of technology platforms. According to Paul Biondi, President of Pioneering Medicines and Executive Partner of Flagship Pioneering, the formation of the Pfizer-Flagship strategic alliance comes with a shared sense of urgency to develop novel drugs for patients with unmet needs. “This new partnership brings together the best of our organizations to maximize discovery and development potential from inception to impact through a unique innovation supply chain that sets us on a path to potentially realize transformational medicines more quickly and effectively,” said Biondi.

Author

Richard Chau