The strategic partnership between Pfizer and Flagship Pioneering, announced last year, has revealed it's first exploration agreement — and the target is obesity.
The collaboration will tap Flagship's platform company, ProFound Therapeutics, to conduct foundational research to identify potential next-gen first-in-class therapies for obesity treatment. ProFound will use its proprietary ProFoundry Platform to discover novel proteins and evaluate their therapeutic relevance.
After early validation activities by ProFound, Pfizer will have the option to advance selected research programs under the terms of the strategic partnership inked between Pfizer and Flagship in July 2023. The partnership is led by Flagship’s in-house drug discovery and development unit, Pioneering Medicines. Both Flagship and Pfizer invested $50 million upfront to explore opportunities to develop 10 single-asset programs by leveraging Flagship’s ecosystem.
Flagship’s innovative bioplatforms are an ecosystem that is currently comprised of close to 40 companies. Last month, Novo Nordisk announced that it would partner with Flagship company Metaphore Biotechnologies to develop obesity management therapeutics.