The University of California, San Francisco

— Pilot & first-year Platinum Program has provided eight companies pre-seed funding totaling $3.5 million, lab space, and mentorship and is now offering drug discovery and corporate advisory services from new sponsors Alloy Therapeutics, Goodwin, and van den Boom & Associates — CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mission BioCapital (MBC) announced today the first eight investments supported by the Platinum Program, a competitive process managed by MBC to accelerate the launch and initial development of high-potential life sciences start-up companies by providing funding, global laboratory space, expert mentorship, and discovery services. The following six investments were made through the 2023 Mission BioCapital Platinum Program: Babylon Biosciences (San Francisco) is focused on discovering and developing small-molecule therapeutics to treat Alzheimer's disease. Bullseye Biosciences (Cambridge, MA) is revolutionizing drug development through robotics and evolution to target challenging drivers of cardiometabolic inflammatory diseases and oncology. Cloverleaf Bio (New Haven) is a Yale spinout developing a new platform of engineered tRNA therapeutics to improve patient outcomes in oncology. Nucyrna Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA) aims to refine RNA-targeting therapeutics based on a novel oligonucleotide platform, with an initial focus on CNS diseases. Umlaut.Bio (Heidelberg, Germany), a spinout of the European Molecule Biology Laboratory (EMBL), is pursuing tRNA targets for treatment of cancer and immunological diseases. Velocity Bio (San Carlos, CA) is a Stanford University spinout developing high-throughput platforms capable of selectivity-first allosteric drug discovery for under-drugged human enzymes implicated in devastating diseases. Mission BioCapital's pilot Platinum Program in 2022 resulted in the following two investments: TippingPoint Biosciences (San Francisco) is a UCSF spinout developing a drug discovery platform to identify treatments for diseases caused by defects in DNA packaging, including several hard-to-treat cancers. Integrated Biosciences (San Carlos, CA) is combining synthetic biology and machine learning to discover small-molecule therapeutics targeting aging and age-related diseases. Winners to date have received a combined $3,500,000 in pre-seed capital, a lab bench in one of Mission BioCapital's affiliated incubators located in 14 markets across in the U.S. and Europe, and strategic scientific and business development mentorship provided by experts from the program's founding sponsors, Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), Ono Venture Investment (ONO), and MBC. "Now in its third year, we have been so pleased with the number of high-potential, visionary life sciences founders that have applied to the competition from around the globe," said Jennifer Griffin, Ph.D., Partner, Mission BioCapital. "We are proud to support early-stage innovation with critical capital, turnkey infrastructure, and strategic mentoring alongside our partners, Lilly and ONO. We thank them for their shared vision and resources that have enabled the program to scale its impact for biotech founders." Applications for 2023 were submitted from around the world, including 12 countries and 31 U.S. states. A panel of judges comprising the MBC investment team and senior executives from Lilly and ONO reviewed the submissions and identified 15 finalists to pitch to the partnership, which selected six companies developing novel solutions for patients. Mission BioCapital continued to scale the Platinum Program's impact in 2024 by introducing "preferred service" sponsors, welcoming new partners Alloy Therapeutics, Goodwin Procter LLP, and van den Boom & Associates, which have committed to offering complementary drug discovery services, general counsel, and accounting services, respectively, to future winners. "It's extremely gratifying to watch our Platinum Program grow, thanks in large part to our sponsors," said Steve Tregay, Ph.D., Managing General Partner, Mission BioCapital. "Our second annual competition tripled the seed funding amounts while greatly expanding the program's geographic reach to find new talent and innovations outside of the major San Francisco and Boston biotechnology hubs. The addition of the new sponsors further augments the program by facilitating access to services that are critical for early-stage biotech companies." "Accelerating innovation by partnering our drug discovery expertise with the novel ideas of early-stage biotech companies is at the heart of what we do," said Errik Anderson, CEO and Founder of Alloy Therapeutics. "We're thrilled to partner with Mission BioCapital to enable biotech founders through the Platinum Program, providing support for the critical initial work to de-risk a company's lead candidate." About the Mission BioCapital Platinum Program Mission BioCapital (MBC) established the Platinum Program in 2022 to enable entrepreneurs with breakthrough technologies from diverse backgrounds to quickly launch new companies. Platinum Program winners receive guaranteed laboratory space at MBC's partner incubators in the U.S. and Europe, access to world-class experts, lead candidate-enabling drug discovery services, and seed capital to quickly develop scientific data needed to obtain subsequent funding rounds. The program invites innovators from around the world, including academic scientists, to submit breakthrough biomedical innovations that have the potential to advance patient care. In its first two years, the Mission BioCapital Platinum Program has awarded a total of $3.5 million, incubator space, and business mentoring to eight life sciences companies located in two countries and three U.S. states. For more information about the Mission BioCapital Platinum Program, please visit . About Mission BioCapital Mission BioCapital is a venture capital firm focused on making pivotal early-stage investments in life sciences companies. We support our portfolio companies through a unique combination of shared lab space, capital investment, and access to strategic partners. With offices in the nation's leading life sciences clusters in Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, Mission BioCapital is dedicated to helping entrepreneurial scientists build successful companies, from idea to exit. Learn more at missionbiocapital.com. Contact: Mary Moynihan M2Friend Biocommunications +1 (802) 951-9600 [email protected] SOURCE Mission BioCapital WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

SandboxAQ Quantitative AI models (LQMs) to identify new biomarkers for safety and efficacy in clinical development PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SandboxAQ announced today a collaboration with Sanofi to identify biomarkers during clinical development. The project will leverage SandboxAQ's Quantitative AI models to causally filter knowledge graphs. This technique will allow scientists to automatically extract new clinical hypotheses from literature and highlight those which are truly causal. SandboxAQ's Quantitative AI models aim to understand human biology, assisting in the identification of new biomarkers and aiding scientists' ability to demonstrate the mechanism of action, efficacy, and safety of investigational medicines and targets in clinical development. SandboxAQ's causal filtration models are part of their growing suite of Large Quantitative Models (LQMs), Quantitative AI models trained on multiple data streams including proprietary data generated internally by SandboxAQ algorithms. Since these data are both exact and limitless, LQMs evade the restrictions in scale and accuracy intrinsic to natural language LLM models trained on public data available on the Internet. Nadia Harhen, General Manager of AI Simulation at Sandbox AQ, added: "Large Quantitative Models, such as those we use to causally filter through knowledge graphs, are proving impactful in many areas across the life sciences, from drug repurposing to reverse screening. The application with Sanofi focused on biomarker identification is very exciting as it increases our reach into later stage clinical development and the patient benefit that can be unlocked far beyond the early stages of drug discovery." Last year, SandboxAQ announced Quantitative AI collaborations with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Novonix, and Riboscience. In 2024, Flagship Pioneering, SPARK NS, and other organizations signed on to further their innovation pipelines. About SandboxAQ ‍SandboxAQ is a B2B company delivering AI solutions that address some of the world's greatest challenges. The company's Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) deliver critical advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, cyber and other sectors. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022, funded by leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Eric Schmidt, Breyer Capital, Guggenheim Partners, Marc Benioff, Thomas Tull, Paladin Capital Group, and others. For more information, visit . SOURCE SandboxAQ WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

The FDA has cleared Iterum’s oral antibiotic for certain patients with uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTIs) who have limited or no alternative oral options. Orlynvah, also known as oral sulopenem, will join a host of antibacterials already on the market for uUTIs. But because of growing antimicrobial resistance and unwanted side effects with some drugs, the company sees a chance to fill an unmet medical need. The drug will also be the first oral drug in a class of antibiotics known as “penems.” Iterum is now looking for a partner with “enough resources to be able to support an appropriate launch,” CEO Corey Fishman said in an interview with Endpoints News . If it can find a partner, Orlynvah could hit the market by the middle of next year. If not, Fishman said “we would consider doing it on our own.” “But we, of course, would have to raise substantial capital to do it,” he said. While the company had applied for broad use in adults with uUTIs, Fishman said the FDA’s label restrictions are “very consistent with how we’ve been thinking the whole time.” The drug is approved specifically for women with uUTIs caused by three microorganisms — Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, or Proteus mirabilis — who have limited options. Uncomplicated UTIs are one of the most frequently diagnosed bacterial infections in the US, generating millions of office visits per year, according to research from UCSF’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy. But last month, an FDA advisory committee that reviewed the company’s drug raised concerns about the risks of increasing antimicrobial resistance by opening the door to potential misuse. “We’re not for the otherwise healthy, younger adult woman who has a UTI,” Fishman told Endpoints News on Friday. “What we’ve always said is we are for that at-risk patient, that higher-risk patient, and I think the label supports that.” That jibes with the FDA’s concerns, which in briefing documents for the advisory committee said that an oral penem could result in “inappropriate and/or extensive use,” potentially leading to cross-resistance with carbapenems, a class of antibiotics commonly used for severe infections or in patients resistant to other antibiotics. “How would we feel as providers if we gave somebody courses of a penem antibiotic for a non-life threatening uncomplicated urinary tract infection, and then a month later, or two months later, or three months later, that patient gets admitted with sepsis due to a penem-resistant organism and dies from that infection?” asked Arjun Srinivasan, a deputy director in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, during the committee discussion in September. The FDA rejected the drug in 2021, citing a “lack of substantial evidence of effectiveness.” This time around, Iterum submitted new data showing it was superior to an oral amoxicillin/clavulanate regimen on overall clinical and microbiological response in patients susceptible to the comparator.