May 5, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
White-hot venture capital and venture creation firm Flagship Ventures is having a stellar week, saying Tuesday it has formed three new strategic partnerships with AstraZeneca PLC , Nestlé Health Science and Bayer CropScience, as a raging biotech sector continues to roar. Flagship, which manages $1.4 billion in capital, is perhaps best known for the eight successful IPOs it HAS backed in the past two years, as well as the formation of 27 companies to date.
The new partnerships also include an investment in Flagship Ventures Fund V, a $537 million venture capital fund that closed in March 2015. Bayer CropScience will now team up with Flagship to identify, fund and develop startup companies exploring new frontiers in agriculture.
“Emerging challenges in agriculture are leading the industry in new and exciting directions,” said Liam Condon, chief executive officer of Bayer CropScience, in a statement. “With growing pest pressures, weather volatility and changes in consumer tastes, growers need and are counting on new solutions to increase yields on the farm. Bayer is committed to providing them with new innovations. We look forward to working with Flagship Ventures to bring exciting, breakthrough companies to market.”
Founded in 2000 and employing 36 people headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Flagship has two units: VentureLabs, Flagship’s “innovation foundry” for new technologies and companies; and Venture Capital, which finances and nurtures innovative early-stage companies.
As part of today’s announcement, all three companies, AstraZeneca, Nestlé Health Science and Bayer CropScience, will get Flagship’s VC expertise—while Flagship will get a direct line to their product development and commercialization units, as well as a stake in each venture. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“For 15 years, Flagship has uniquely pursued a hybrid model of venture creation and investment to fulfill its mission of realizing entrepreneurial innovation,” said Noubar Afeyan, senior managing partner and chief executive officer of Flagship.
“The strategic innovation partnerships we have formed with these leading companies will enable us to accelerate our efforts, translate more scientific discoveries into game-changing companies that disrupt existing markets, and make our own breakthrough innovations to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.”
Flagship’s notable companies are varied and include a stable of at least three VentureLabs companies: Moderna Therapeutics, which focuses on messenger RNA Therapeutics; Seres Health, studying microbial ecosystems; and Symbiota, pioneering plant microbiome solutions. Two other well-known firms in its portfolio include Agios Pharmaceuticals , a clinical-stage biotech firm studying cancer and rare metabolic disorders, and Editas Medicine, a genome editing company developing novel therapeutics.
That track record was enough to convince some of the world’s largest biotechs to double down on Flagship and create some cross-pollination, said execs.
“We are partnering with Flagship based on their proven track record of successfully creating and investing in transformative therapeutics platforms,” said Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of AstraZeneca PLC ‘s Innovative Medicines Unit.
“Our collaboration will allow us to leverage our complementary strengths while accessing breakthrough science at its formative stages.”
Will Hungry Pfizer Make a Play for Struggling GlaxoSmithKline?
Almost a year after its $119 billion offer for AstraZeneca PLC fell apart in the face of massive opposition from regulators and internal dissent, global drugmaker Pfizer Inc. is once again being floated as a potential buyer of another marquee-name British pharmaceutical company: GlaxoSmithKline . We at BioSpace want to know your thoughts: With cash to burn, will Pfizer go hunting for Glaxo?
