Five years after launching one of the most promising generative biology drug discovery companies, Generate Biomedicines, venture capital powerhouse Flagship Pioneering has brought a generative chemistry drug discovery company out of stealth.
Following three years of internal development, Expedition Medicines is taking flight. The company is supported by a $50 million commitment from Flagship and boasts a mission to use artificial-intelligence-powered generative design to “expand the boundaries of small molecule therapies,” according to an Oct. 22 announcement.
Expedition is already locked into an agreement with Pfizer, seeking new targets to help identify novel therapeutics for prostate cancer, according to the announcement. The deal was initiated under Flagship’s expansive partnership with the New York Big Pharma.
Expedition is breaking new ground in drug discovery through its “unique insight from the quantum chemistry of protein small-molecule interactions,” Flagship founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., said in the release.
“Today, the majority of proteins known to be involved in disease have no medicines that can reach them,” Afeyan added. “By harnessing AI and quantum covalent chemistry to rewrite what’s possible in drug design, Expedition is transforming these undruggable proteins into tractable targets.”
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While traditional small-molecule drugs work by fitting into clearly defined pockets in which to bind, many proteins that have smooth surfaces have long been considered “undruggable,” Flagship explained. At the same time, because these proteins have been ignored, they present significant opportunities for treatment advances.
Taking the reins as CEO of Expedition is Molly Gibson, Ph.D., who co-founded Generate Biomedicines and served in a dual role for five years as its chief strategy and chief innovation officer.
Since it emerged in 2020, Generate has seen its star rise behind its machine learning platform that parses the structure of human proteins and creates novel sequences that form the basis of new treatments.
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Last year, Generate struck a deal with Novartis potentially worth more than $1 billion to develop protein therapeutics across multiple indications.
“AI is transforming biology by learning the grammar of proteins and DNA,” Gibson said in the release. “At Expedition, we are pioneering the same leap for small molecules grounded in the quantum chemistry of covalent interactions and fueled by unprecedented experimental data. Our models are learning the rules of how molecules react and bind to any protein surface in order to make small molecule programmability a reality.”
