CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellarity, a life
sciences company founded by Flagship Pioneering to develop a new
method of drug discovery targeting the cell, announced today that
it raised $123 million in Series B
financing. The round included contributions from funds and accounts
managed by BlackRock, The Baupost Group, Banque Pictet on behalf of
their clients and eight other investors alongside Flagship
Pioneering.
Founded in 2017 within Flagship Labs, Cellarity's new approach
to drug discovery is based on the computational modeling of cell
behavior, leading to a more complete understanding of system and
network biology to uncover cell-behavior-targeted medicines for a
wide variety of diseases.
Cellarity's medicines are developed to address disease at the
level of the cell and are not aimed at single molecular targets,
the approach pursued in much of traditional drug discovery. The
successful financing round validates the strength of Cellarity's
science and its potential to redefine drug discovery through its
cell-centric approach.
"All diseases stem from a disorder at the cellular level, but
until now most drug discovery efforts have relied upon single
molecular targets that overlook the potent networked relationships
of biology," said Fabrice Chouraqui,
CEO of Cellarity and a CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering. "By
working at the level of the entire cell, Cellarity's drug discovery
platform harnesses the complexity of human biology to uncover
breakthrough treatments in a wide range of disease areas."
Cellarity is generating unprecedented biological insights by
combining its unique expertise in network biology, high-resolution
data, and machine learning. The result is a new understanding of
the cell's trajectory from health to disease, and how cells relate
to one another in tissues. Because the cell and its network of
transcripts and proteins offer a more complete view of the
complexity of human biology than any individual molecular target,
Cellarity's approach allows for more efficient drug discovery and
is designed to drive higher rates of clinical success.
Already, the company has seven drug discovery programs underway in
diverse therapeutic areas that range from metabolic disease to
immuno-oncology.
"Cellarity's cell-centric platform has the potential to engineer
a shift in how the world approaches the discovery of medicine,"
said Noubar Afeyan, CEO of Flagship
Pioneering and Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Cellarity.
"It is another example of Flagship Pioneering's relentless efforts
to push the boundaries of the life sciences to uncover breakthrough
technologies and identify innovative treatments that will change
the lives of patients."
About Cellarity
Cellarity's mission is to bring
breakthrough medicines to patients by completely redefining the way
drugs are discovered. Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2017,
Cellarity is designing medicines against the cell as opposed to a
single molecular target. The company has developed a unique
combination of expertise across system and network biology,
high-resolution data, and machine learning to unlock treatments in
a large number of therapeutic areas.
About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering
conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life
sciences companies to transform human health and sustainability.
Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs
unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to
originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting
in over $50B in aggregate value. To
date, Flagship has deployed over $2.2B in capital toward the founding and growth
of its pioneering companies alongside more than $18B of follow-on investments from other
institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 41
transformative companies, including Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA),
Codiak Biosciences (NASDAQ:CDAK), Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ:
DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics
(NASDAQ: FHTX), Indigo Ag, Kaleido
Biosciences (NASDAQ: KLDO), Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Rubius
Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA),
Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), and Sigilon Therapeutics
(NASDAQ: SGTX).
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SOURCE Cellarity