Formerly | IFM (2016–2018) |
---|---|
Type | Private |
Industry | Pharmaceutical |
Founded | 2015Cambridge, Massachusetts | in
Key people |
|
Subsidiaries | IFM Due |
Website | ifmthera |
IFM Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing biological treatments for autoimmune diseases.
IFM Therapeutics launched in 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, based on seed funding from the Boston-based venture capital fund Atlas Venture. [1] The company's founding involved seven people, a mix of executives and university professors. [1] Series A financing was provided by Atlas, London-based Abingworth, and Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. [1]
The company was originally formed with a dual development path, focusing on both autoimmune diseases and cancer immunotherapy. However, in 2017, the entire development program devoted to enhancing the body's innate immune response to cancer was purchased by Bristol-Myers Squibb, which set up a new company from this purchase and recruited IFM's CEO, Gary Glick, to head the new company. [2] This purchase was notable in both its speed following IFM's establishment, and the payment—ten-times the Series A funding injection. [2]
The following year, in 2018, Boston-based IFM Tre formed with the spin-out of research and assets specifically related to blocking the NLRP3 complex, [3] [4] a so-called inflammasome. [5] This spin-out, described as a subsidiary, [5] subsequently secured funding from a familiar set of sources: Atlas, Abingworth, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. [3] The rest of the company remained as a limited-liability company, from which it was anticipated further research spin-outs might take place. [3] IFM Tre's leadership included Gary Glick and H. Martin Seidel, formerly of Novartis. [3]
An alternative view on the 2018, purchase by Bristol-Myers Squibb has characterized it as a straightforward acquisition of IFM, with remaining assets going to form IFM Therapeutics, [6] which spawned two subsidiaries, IFM Tre and IFM Due, the latter focused on development of cGAS/STING antagonists. [7] [8] IFM Tre was subsequently bought by Novartis in 2019. [7] [8]
Gary Glick was tapped to be the company's chief executive officer during its initial formation. [1] Glick founded a spin-out immunotherapy firm from the University of Michigan in 2006, Lycera, and served as the company's chief scientific officer until joining IFM. [1] Two other C-suite members at the outset were Dennis Dean, chief development officer, formerly of Vertex; and Shomir Gosh, chief scientific officer, formerly of Tempero Pharmaceuticals. [1] Gosh left IFM in 2018 for the post of chief scientific officer at the Harvard spin-out firm 28-7 Therapeutics. [9] In 2017, Martin Seidel joined IFM as the head of R&D, coming from an executive position at Novartis. [10] IFM's chairman was also an Atlas partner, Jean-François Formela, and an additional board member, Vincent Miles, came from Abingworth, the other major venture capital firm supporting IFM. [1]
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, doing business as Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations. For fiscal 2022, it had a total revenue of $46.2 billion.
ZymoGenetics, Inc was one of the oldest biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies in the USA, based in Seattle, Washington. The company was involved in the development of therapeutic proteins. Located on Lake Union, the address of the ZymoGenetics headquarters was 1201 Eastlake Avenue East. It was closed in 2019 after its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Exelixis, Inc. is a genomics-based drug discovery company located in Alameda, California, and the producer of Cometriq, a treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for medullary thyroid cancer with clinical activity in several other types of metastatic cancer.
Biocon Limited is an Indian biopharmaceutical company based in Bangalore. It was founded by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in 1978. The company manufactures generic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that are sold in approximately 120 countries, including the United States and Europe. It also manufactures novel biologics as well as biosimilar insulins and antibodies, which are sold in India as branded formulations. Biocon's biosimilar products are also sold in both bulk and formulation forms in several emerging markets.
Celgene Corporation is a pharmaceutical company that makes cancer and immunology drugs. Its major product is Revlimid (lenalidomide), which is used in the treatment of multiple myeloma, and also in certain anemias. The company is incorporated in Delaware, headquartered in Summit, New Jersey, and a subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).
Genome Valley is an Indian high-technology business district spread across 2,000-acre (8.1 km2)/(3.1 sq mi) in Hyderabad, India. It is located across the suburbs, Turakapally, Shamirpet, Medchal, Uppal, Patancheru, Jeedimetla, Gachibowli and Keesara. The Genome Valley has developed as a cluster for Biomedical research, training and manufacturing. Genome Valley is now into its Phase III, which is about 11 kms from the Phase I and II with the total area approximately 2,000-acre (8.1 km2).
John Mendlein is a biotech executive who has held leadership positions in biotech companies in Boston, San Diego and Toronto.
Atlas Venture is an early-stage venture capital firm that creates and invests in biotechnology startup companies in the U.S. Atlas is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the majority of its investments are located. Atlas raised its thirteenth fund totaling $450 million in March 2022, after raising its Opportunity Fund II totaling $300 million in September 2021.
Compugen Ltd. is a clinical-stage publicly traded predictive drug discovery and development company headquartered in Israel, with shares traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market and on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Compugen was established as computational drug discovery service provider in 1993. Compugen originally acted as service provider for pharma companies, supplying its software and computational services to predict different types of biological phenomena. It had arrangements with big companies such as Novartis AG, Abbot Laboratories and Pfizer Inc. Subsequently, Compugen made a decision to become a drug development company with its own internal pipeline, and in 2010, decided to a focus on oncology and immunology. OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and Five Prime Therapeutics are among Compugen's competitors.
Jeremy Levin is a South African-born businessman, medical doctor and research scientist. In 2018, Levin was named as one of the most influential figures in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Endocyte is a biopharmaceutical company established in 1996 and headquartered in West Lafayette, Indiana, a resident of the Purdue Research Park. In 2011 the company completed successfully an initial public offering (IPO). As of 2013, the company had 93 employees. The original president and CEO, Ron Ellis, was succeeded by Mike Sherman, who held a CFO position at the company before this change in June 2016. In 2018 the company was acquired by Novartis.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an American biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics for genetically defined diseases. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2016, Forbes included the company on its "100 Most Innovative Growth Companies" list.
Juno Therapeutics Inc was an American biopharmaceutical company founded in 2013 through a collaboration of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and pediatrics partner Seattle Children's Research Institute. The company was launched with an initial investment of $120 million, with a remit to develop a pipeline of cancer immunotherapy drugs. The company raised $300 million through private funding and a further $265 million through their IPO.
Ozanimod, sold under the brand name Zeposia, is an immunomodulatory medication for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis. It acts as a sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor (S1PR) agonist, sequestering lymphocytes to peripheral lymphoid organs and away from their sites of chronic inflammation.
Editas Medicine, Inc.,, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company which is developing therapies for rare diseases based on CRISPR gene editing technology. Editas headquarters is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has facilities in Boulder, Colorado.
Arrakis Therapeutics is a Waltham, Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company developing drugs for neurological disorders and other diseases. The company was co-founded in 2015 by Jennifer Petter, PhD, now Chief Innovation Officer Raj Parakh, Alan Walts and Henri Termeer. Arrakis has been led since October 2016 by CEO Michael Gilman, PhD, a former Biogen executive who co-founded and led Padlock Therapeutics and Stromedix.
Gregory L. Verdine is an American chemical biologist, biotech entrepreneur, venture capitalist and university professor. He is a founder of the field of chemical biology, which deals with the application of chemical techniques to biological systems. His work has focused on mechanisms of DNA repair and cell penetrability.
Intellia Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel, potentially curative therapeutics leveraging CRISPR-based technologies. The company's in vivo programs use intravenously administered CRISPR as the therapy, in which the company's proprietary delivery technology enables highly precise editing of disease-causing genes directly within specific target tissues. Intellia's ex vivo programs use CRISPR to create the therapy by using engineered human cells to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Martin Seidel is joining IFM Therapeutics to become the Boston biotech's executive vice president of research and development.