July 18 Quick Takes: Pfizer, Flagship to launch up to 10 single-asset programs

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) partnered with the Pioneering Medicines unit of Flagship Pioneering to develop up to 10 single-asset programs based on technologies sourced from Flagship’s portfolio companies. Flagship and Pfizer will each contribute $50 million to the deal, which will focus on molecules across Pfizer’s core therapeutic areas of infectious disease, inflammation and immunology, internal medicine, cancer, rare diseases and vaccines. Pfizer will fund each program and have an option to acquire it. Flagship and its platform companies will be eligible for up to $700 million in milestones, plus royalties, for each program that reaches commercialization. 

The deal is Pioneering Medicines’ third; the initiative launched in 2020 to leverage the underlying platform technologies in Flagship’s investment ecosystem. Its first deal was with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 2021, followed by last year’s agreement with Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NOVO; NYSE:NVO) for cardiometabolic and rare diseases...