Investor behind Moderna raises $ 3.4 billion in biotechnology focus

Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital firm behind Moderna, has raised its largest fund as it aims to build the next generation of biotech companies.

The $ 3.4 billion fund is one of the largest accumulated in the pharmaceutical industry and comes at a time when investment is high floods in the sector, driven by the numerous companies in the initial phase races make treatments and vaccines to fight Covid-19.

Noubar Afeyan, founder of Flagship, said: “The expanded capital base will allow us to do that. . . to lead science, creation and growth of pioneering companies under one roof ”.

The flagship fund VII comprises $ 2.2 billion raised from investors this year and $ 1.22 billion raised in 2020. The company plans to deploy cash over the next three years.

Instead of looking for existing early-stage biotechnologies to fund, the Massachusetts-based group is investing in technology development and business establishment within its own four walls. Teams are built around specific areas of interest with the goal of developing to form individual companies as research develops.

“In the traditional sense of the word, it is not an investment fund. . . nothing we do comes from outside, ”Afeyan, who founded Flagship in 2000, told the Financial Times.

Flagship’s most recognized company is Modern, which was founded in 2010 with the goal of developing mRNA therapeutics, and is chaired by Afeyan. The vaccine manufacturer sold $ 1.7 billion in Covid strokes during the first three months of the year and its share price has skyrocketed by more than 1,000% since early 2020.

Afeyan described Flagship’s strategy as “explorations” and “an unlimited attempt to create scientific advances along with advances in products.” He said vaccine development at Moderna began by asking “if we could use a code molecule or some kind of molecule that could instruct the body to make any medicine we wanted.”

Flagship has $ 14.1 billion in assets under management and has invested $ 4.8 billion in its businesses over the past four quarters. Last week, its drug discovery business, Valo Health, announced it would go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company.

Afeyan said the life sciences company is not focused on creating biotechnologies that address specific diseases, but seeks to build platforms where technologies can be used in various diseases. Moderna is currently conducting phase 1 trials of its mRNA technology on HIV and influenza.

Flagship scientists were particularly interested in advancing machine learning tools that can understand the human body on a more complex and granular level than humans, as well as the field of preventive medicine, Afeyan said.

“The underlying health conditions turned this pandemic into the devastation that was there because there were all these underlying health comorbidities that made it worse,” he said. “We believe we will see a world in the future where we can intervene before diseases manifest.”

Flagship has recently expanded with the opening of an office in London and has hired Lord Ara Darzi, a former UK health minister, to direct its preventive medicine work.