Flagship Pioneering has accelerated its strategic partnership with Pfizer, announcing two research programs with Flagship-founded Quotient Therapeutics. Under the collaboration, the companies will analyze somatic mutations that occur in diseased patient tissue to inform the discovery and development of potentially transformative therapies for cardiovascular and renal diseases.
Pioneering Medicines, Flagship’s in house drug discovery and development unit, is responsible for leading the strategic partnership with Pfizer, including driving the exploration process to rapidly surface potential drug development programs built on Flagship’s diverse bioplatforms and modalities. The Quotient agreement is the most recent program initiated under Flagship’s strategic partnership with Pfizer announced in July 2023.
“Quotient’s Somatic Genomics platform explores the extensive genetic diversity within the 30 trillion cells inside our body. This offers an incredibly rich and unchartered territory for drug discovery,” said Jacob Rubens, Co-Founder and CEO of Quotient Therapeutics and Origination Partner at Flagship Pioneering. “These two research programs will deploy our unique platform capabilities to identify novel links between genes and cardiovascular or renal disease, which are leading causes of mortality and morbidity around the world.”
“Our strategic alliance with Pfizer was driven by a shared ambition – to develop novel medicines for patients sooner,” said Paul Biondi, Flagship Pioneering General Partner and President of Pioneering Medicines. “This exploration with Quotient not only represents another exciting milestone for the partnership, but also speaks to the transformative potential of partnership to accelerate therapeutic innovation.”
“This strategic collaboration with Flagship provides an opportunity to explore early discovery work with Quotient’s proprietary platform to potentially unlock new targets for cardiovascular and renal disease,” said Bill Sessa, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of the Internal Medicine Research Unit at Pfizer. “With our deep cardiometabolic heritage, we will continue to push the boundaries of research innovation to help address significant gaps in care that remain for these patients.”
