GSK partners with Flagship Pioneering to develop medicines and vaccines

The two companies have agreed to jointly fund up to $150M upfront to identify promising concepts

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that creates and funds bioplatform companies; since its founded in 2000, it has developed more than 100 scientific ventures, including Denali Therapeutics, Foghorn Therapeutics, and Moderna.

Recently, the company has been entering into a series of partnerships with biotech companies, including one with Pfizer last year to create a new pipeline of innovative medicines, while Metaphore Biotechnologies, one of Flagship's companies, partnered with Novo Nordisk in May to develop up to two therapeutics for obesity management. 

On Monday, the Cambridge, Massachusetts Flagship unveiled its latest partnership, this time with GSK. The collaboration will combine GSK's disease area expertise and development capability with Flagship portfolio of over 40 bioplatform companies with the goal of discovering and developing a portfolio of future transformational medicines and vaccines, starting in respiratory and immunology.

To do that, GSK and Flagship agreed to jointly fund up to $150 million upfront in order to support an exploration phase to identify the most promising concepts for further research and development with Flagship’s bioplatform companies. Ultimately, the plan is to identify a portfolio of up to 10 novel medicines and vaccines which will each be subject to an exclusive option by GSK for further clinical development.

Under the terms of the agreement, Flagship and its bioplatform companies will be eligible to receive up to $720 million in upfront, development and commercial milestones from GSK, and preclinical funding and tiered royalties for each acquired program.

This news comes less than a month after Flagship announced a $3.6 billion raise to support the creation and development of an estimated 25 breakthrough companies in human health, sustainability, and artificial intelligence; that included $2.6 billion into Fund VIII, as well as $1 billion to side funds that include sector-specific strategic partnerships. That brought Flagship's total capital raised since 2021 to $6.4 billion. 

To date, the company has deployed over $3.8 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its companies, alongside more than $27 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions.

“Flagship and GSK have a shared focus on delivering breakthrough medicines for patients. This collaboration is the latest example of Flagship’s Innovation Supply Chain Partnership model, which is designed to generate transformational medicines together with our pharma partners by leveraging our ecosystem of first-in-category bioplatforms to create a sustainable source of treatments for patients with the greatest unmet needs," Paul Biondi, General Partner, Flagship Pioneering and President, Pioneering Medicines, said in a statement.

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