Cellarity Raises $123 Million in Series B Funding to Pioneer a New Approach to Drug Discovery, Treating Disease at the Level of the Cell as Opposed to a Single Molecular Target

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.

“We are entering the era of generative biology and the ability to create medicines with much more predictability and intentionality,” said Avak Kahvejian, General Partner, Flagship Pioneering and Co-Founder, Cellarity. “Cellarity’s platform, combining biology, computation and technology represents a dramatic rearchitecting of the current drug discovery paradigm toward this generative approach.”

“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.”

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.

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).