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Flagship Pioneering unveiled its latest offshoot — Expedition Medicines, equipped with $50 million in Series A financing.

Why it matters: Expedition is already fundraising a Series B as it scales its drug discovery platform, says CEO Molly Gibson.

How it works: Cambridge, Mass.-based Expedition is developing a generative AI platform that uses quantum covalent chemistry to discover new molecules.

The platform can be applied across various therapeutic areas, though the initial focus is oncology and immunology, Gibson says.

The company, founded in 2022,  has four programs in its pipeline and many others in earlier stages.

State of play: Gibson declined to disclose how much Expedition is targeting in its next raise, noting current fundraising challenges could impact the size. 

Yes, but: "The promise of AI in this space is helping a lot," Gibson says.

What they're saying: "Expedition was really started with the view that we need new approaches and new technologies to tackle some of the hardest targets in drug discovery," Gibson says.

 "For every one of our lead programs, there are multiple disease indications — potentially even multiple candidates that we could be progressing."

The intrigue: Expedition also announced a multi-target exploration agreement with Pfizer to identify therapeutic candidates for prostate cancer.

The agreement falls under a collaboration Flagship inked with Pfizer in 2023, in which both companies are investing $50 million upfront to develop 10 single-asset programs.

Under Expedition's agreement with Pfizer, the pharma giant will have the option to license multiple developed programs.

What's next: Expedition is in discussions with other pharma companies about potential collaboration and licensing deals, Gibson says, and expects to announce some next year.

"A lot of the interest in pharma has been coming from the fact that as our technology can truly solve the problems that they've been facing internally for some time, and they haven't been able to solve themselves," Gibson says.

The big picture: AI drug discovery and development companies have emerged as one of the most attractive areas of the life sciences industry as companies work to discover novel molecules and cut drug development timelines.

Other biotechs, such as Google's Isomorphic Labs and publicly traded Recursion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RXRX), are doing similar work in AI drug discovery.

Catch up quick: Flagship, founded in 2000, has launched more than 100 scientific ventures, including Foghorn Therapeutics and Moderna, which altogether have spawned more than $60 billion in aggregate value.

Flagship Pioneering unveils AI drug discovery company with $50M

Expedition is currently fundraising a Series B.

Illustration of a scientist holding a petri dish full of binary code

Flagship Pioneering unveiled its latest offshoot — Expedition Medicines, equipped with $50 million in Series A financing.Why it matters: Expedition is already fundraising a Series B as it scales its drug discovery platform, says CEO Molly Gibson.

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Flagship Pioneering unveils AI drug discovery company with $50M

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