EMD Serono Research & Development Institute, Inc.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ProFound™ Therapeutics, a company pioneering the discovery of a vastly expanded human proteome and using its newfound insights to unlock a universe of potential new medicines, today announced the appointment of Klaus Urbahns, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer. Urbahns will lead the Company’s platform and drug discovery and development efforts to advance first-in-class therapeutics leveraging the company’s ProFoundry™ Platform. Urbahns brings three decades of robust drug discovery and development experience to ProFound, with a successful track record in discovering and advancing first-in-human medicines from the lab to the clinic. He joins ProFound after 13 years at Merck KGaA, where he most recently served as the Head of EMD Serono Research and Development Institute, Global Head of Discovery and Development Technologies, Co-Chair of the Discovery-Research Committee, and Member of the Merck Ventures investment board. During his tenure, he helped rebuild the company’s R&D organization, leading discovery and development of therapeutic proteins, small molecules, and antibody-drug conjugates. Prior to Merck, Urbahns served in leadership positions at AstraZeneca and Bayer, where he began his career as a medicinal chemist. “With the new proteins we’ve uncovered to date through our proprietary ProFoundry Platform, we’re continuing to redefine what we know about human biology to unlock a new world of first-in-class therapeutic possibilities,” said Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D., Flagship Pioneering General Partner and Founding CEO of ProFound Therapeutics. “I’m excited to welcome Klaus to our leadership team with his breadth of experience working at the intersection of biology and technology to discover novel therapeutic candidates, and his successful track record as an established leader, building and growing adept teams.” “ProFound is illuminating the proteome in new ways, and I’m impressed with how the team has already discovered and implicated dozens of novel proteins as potential drugs and drug targets at an unprecedented rate,” said Klaus Urbahns, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of ProFound Therapeutics. “I look forward to bringing my experience in drug discovery and development to help advance the company and its powerful platform to the next stage of growth and develop an initial pipeline of novel therapeutics.” About ProFound™ Therapeutics ProFound Therapeutics is pioneering the discovery of a vastly expanded human proteome and using its newfound insights to unlock a universe of potential new medicines. The company’s ProFoundry Platform uses state-of-the-art protein detection technologies to systematically identify and validate proteins and dissect their therapeutic potential. The result is an ever-expanding database of tens of thousands of novel proteins, including their connectivity, functionality, and roles in health and disease. ProFound Therapeutics was founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2020. About Flagship Pioneering Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category bioplatform 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 more than $90 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $3.4 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $26 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 45 transformative companies, including Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Generate Biomedicines, Inari, Indigo Agriculture, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB) and Tessera Therapeutics.