Flagship Pioneering Raises $3.6 Billion to Fuel Breakthrough Innovations that Transform Human Health and Sustainability

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Jul 10, 2024, 06:00 ET

Record Year with Key Partnerships, Global Expansion and Expanded Top Talent

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Pioneering, the bioplatform innovation company, today announced it has expanded its capital base by $3.6 billion to support the creation and development of an estimated 25 breakthrough companies in human health, sustainability, and artificial intelligence. Flagship has raised $2.6 billion into Fund VIII, in addition to side funds that include sector-specific strategic partnerships totaling $1 billion. This brings the total capital raised by Flagship into its funds since 2021 to $6.4 billion.

"At Flagship, we focus on pioneering original science, and on harnessing the ingenuity needed to invent transformative technologies and companies that improve human health as well as the sustainability of our planet," said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. "Our unique approach to making breakthrough scientific discoveries, combined with our track record of founding, building, and scaling companies, has led to the creation and growth of more than 100 biotechnology companies in just over two decades. And I believe Flagship's most generative, impactful days lie ahead of us."

"Over the past six years, Flagship has also pioneered AI-enabled platforms that transform drug discovery, speed up the drug development process and gain new insights into human health and sustainability," Afeyan added. "By leveraging the power and potential of generative AI, we're embracing a future in which companies are created and expanded in ways we have not previously experienced, with the prospect for unprecedented impact."

Financial Update
With its latest raise, Flagship is now operating with an aggregate capital pool of $10.9 billion, with $14 billion of assets under management. Since the close of Flagship's last fund in 2021, an aggregate $5.8 billion of equity capital has been invested by Flagship and its co-investors into its current ecosystem of companies.

"Flagship Fund VIII is backed by a diverse group of investors globally – both new and longstanding Limited Partners – and we are grateful for their support of the work we do to create breakthrough innovations that address some of the world's most critical challenges," Afeyan continued. "This expanded capital pool will enable us to drive scientific discovery, with a portfolio that reflects a compelling combination of platforms, products, and impact. This capital will greatly fuel our origination activities and accelerate value creation from our transformational companies."

Partnering to Scale Innovation and Impact
Flagship's unique approach to pioneering science and to breakthrough biotech platforms has led to several novel partnerships within the pharmaceutical industry and beyond. In the past year, Flagship announced strategic partnerships with Pfizer, Samsung, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, in addition to reaching several partnership milestones with Novo Nordisk.

Underpinning these partnerships is Flagship's Innovation Supply Chain Partnership (ISC) model, initiated in 2023, creating an entirely new paradigm of distributed, networked R&D to maximize innovation at every step from platform to pipeline to product. These partnerships are designed to start earlier in the innovation process, leverage bioplatforms, and be broad-based and long-term.

"Partnerships have long been core to Flagship's strategy for maximizing value creation and the impact of our companies," Afeyan said. "Through these most recent alliances, and others under development, Flagship is leveraging the distinctive capabilities of our partners to significantly enhance and facilitate our product development capabilities as well as commercialize our innovations at scale."

Over the last three years, Pioneering Medicines, Flagship's in house drug development unit which leads its current partnerships with Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, has grown to over 100 people with a pipeline of ten therapeutics under development and plans to expand with additional partnerships.

Expanding Flagship's Global Footprint
At the end of 2023, Flagship expanded into the UK and Asia Pacific with operational hubs in London and Singapore to access collaborations with international research centers, corporate partners and global talent. Flagship's expansion of its Cambridge-based ecosystem through connections with vibrant life sciences ecosystems in other geographies will help to broaden the company's impact on human health and the health of our planet. Flagship chose the UK given its strong commitment to scientific research and development, as well as its regulatory environment that supports a culture of innovation.

Flagship's expansion into APAC, focused on serving Singapore, Japan and South Korea, will allow Flagship to accelerate the growth and scaling of its companies through strategic partnerships across industry, academia, and healthcare systems in the region.

Assembling Top Talent
Flagship is dedicated to hiring and nurturing world-class executives with a history of extraordinary performance, as illustrated by the company's recent hires and promotions in the past year. These include Lovisa Afzelius, Ph.D., and Paul Biondi who have been promoted to General Partner; Dina Ciarimboli, who recently joined as General Counsel and Executive Partner; Marcello Damiani who has been appointed Senior Partner, Digital, IT Strategy, and Operations; and Gary Pisano, Ph.D., who has joined Flagship as Executive Partner and Chief Strategist. Flagship has also added several CEO-Partners to lead its growth stage companies, including: Dean Banks (Indigo Ag); Jason Gardner (Ampersand Biomedicines); John Lepore (ProFound Therapeutics); and Amy O'Shea (Invaio Sciences).

About Flagship Pioneering
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 $75 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $3.8 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $27 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 40 companies, including Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), Generate Biomedicines, Inari, Indigo Agriculture, and Tessera Therapeutics.