The former leaders of SpringWorks Therapeutics are back with a new biotech venture that is already buzzing from a $300 million series A.
Beeline Medicines flew out of stealth today with its stores already filled by an investment team led by Bain Capital, with five autoimmune programs licensed from Bristol Myers Squibb to ensure its team stays busy.
The leader of Beeline’s hive is Saqib Islam, who formerly led Pfizer-spinout SpringWorks through its two FDA approvals and $3.9 billion buyout by Merck KGaA in April 2025.
Islam initially thought he and fellow SpringWorks alum Badreddin Edris, Ph.D., would have a bit of a break after their company’s sale closed last July. Instead, Bain—which also built SpringWorks—got right to work spinning five programs from BMS into a new company, and the opportunity was too good to pass up.
“This whole pipeline sits at this intersection of rigorous science, unmet patient need and mechanistic rationale,” Islam told Fierce Biotech. “You combine that with a team that has got some amount of execution experience in walking through this path, it makes it very exciting.”
The new biotech’s lead program is afimetoran, a daily oral small molecule designed to inhibit both toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8). Afimetoran has already been tested in a phase 1b trial for cutaneous lupus erythematosus, with an ongoing phase 2 trial slated to wrap up by the end of the year. After that, Beeline will launch a pivotal lupus trial for the prospect, the company said in an April 15 press release.
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TLR7 is found on innate immune cells and B cells, while TLR8 is present on myeloid cells, Beeline’s Chief Medical Officer Nathalie Franchimont, M.D., Ph.D., explained in the interview with Fierce. Targeting these different immune cells is meant to stop lupus, which is marked by an overactive immune system, in its tracks.
Afimetoran “is really acting on the key driver of lupus disease,” Franchimont said. And because the molecule is designed to be a daily pill, it would be easy for those with the disease—many of whom are young women—to fit the medicine into their lifestyles.
“They are usually young women still at college with an active life,” she said. “Having the convenience of a once-daily, oral, potent therapy is really exciting to me.”
With around five million people affected by different forms of lupus, the vast patient population represents both a market opportunity and an obligation for the company. It’s this obligation that inspired Beeline’s name, Islam said.
“There’s an accountability that gets created with that, and we have to meet that accountability with a sense of urgency,” the CEO said. “Beeline is supposed to represent the direct path to a destination. Focus, dedication, urgency, consistency.”
BMS has also pollinated Beeline’s pipeline with BMS-986326, an IL-2-CD25 fusion protein in phase 1b development for atopic dermatitis and lupus, and lomedeucitinib, a phase 2 oral TYK2 inhibitor in the works for plaque psoriasis.
The new biotech also boasts two preclinical biologics designed to target IL-10 and IL-18, according to the release.
“We have validated biology in each, we have differentiated molecular properties for each therapeutic candidate, and then really a clear line of sight into near term clinical milestones,” Edris, who is now Beeline’s president and chief operating officer, told Fierce.
Beeline expects to launch a series of new trials over the coming 12 to 18 months, Edris added, including bringing the biotech’s two preclinical assets into the clinic.
While Beeline is currently locked in on its five programs from BMS, the biotech will be keeping eyes on the broader inflammation and immunology landscape in case other opportunities bloom, Islam said.
For now, the company has just under 40 employees with a heavy R&D focus, including some expertise that has come over from BMS, the chief exec said.
“We think we’re going to be able to create a company of consequence in I&I,” Islam said. “Starting with lupus, but certainly in other indications as well.”
