Flagship-Backed Biotech Uses Naturally-Occurring Molecules to Treat Chronic Disease (Updated)

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Flagship Pioneering has committed $50 million to Montai Health, a biotech that aims to develop therapies for chronic diseases using molecules already found in nature, the companies announced Tuesday.

The funding will advance Montai's Conecta platform, which it will use to map what it calls the "world's first Anthromolecule Bioactivity Atlas." The technology searches over 100,000 molecules to find those that can help treat chronic diseases.

Montai is helmed by Margo Georgiadis, whose experience includes serving as the CEO of Ancestry.com and president of Americas at Google.

Because chronic diseases require repeated treatment across a patient's lifetime, researchers at Montai believe they can develop therapeutics that offer a level of accessibility and safety not offered with currently-available therapies. 

Montai cites the following concerns with currently-available treatments for chronic diseases: 

• Cost and time. It takes $1 billion and 10 years to develop a new drug.
• Failure rates. Only 30% of therapies make it to market. 
• Safety. 30% of treatments are non-responsive or unsafe for long-term use. 

To overcome these challenges, Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., co-founder of both Montai and Flagship Pioneering, said his team's research comes back to one key question: "What if the key to preempting or treating chronic disease exists within molecules we already consume?" 

The platform uses artificial intelligence to screen digital compound libraries to find the molecules that have the potential to be used as therapeutics, according to Chemical and Engineering News. The molecules being researched are only those humans already consume found in food, supplements and herbal medicines. 

Of course, new technology often comes with its own challenges. A Montai spokesperson told BioSpace the challenges that come with the Anthromolecule Bioactivity Atlas are as follows: "building comprehensive AnthroGraphs of all the critical properties to create Anthromolecule medicines, generating the data to develop predictions on safe, potent Anthromolecule connections to biological pathways and defining the highest impact pathways for each therapeutic area of interest."

Though Montai's CEO lacks experience in biopharma, she has ample experience with AI. Google and Ancestry.com utilize both AI and machine learning to comb through massive amounts of information and data, not unlike the mapping Montai utilizes. 

Montai plans to focus its initial efforts on inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Though the company did not provide a timeline for entering the clinic, the spokesperson said the company plans on "naming development candidates and advancing to the clinic in a rapid, but thoughtful way."