**Pfizer and Flagship Pioneering have entered into an agreement aimed at discovering potential selective inhibitors for autoimmune diseases.**
The collaboration between Pfizer and Pioneering Medicines, Flagship’s in-house drug discovery and development unit, will seek to discover compounds “which may lead to the development of next-generation therapeutics” for these disorders.
More than 100 known types of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, affect over 50 million people in the US. They occur when the immune system is unable to distinguish between healthy cells and invading pathogens.
Pfizer and Flagship will engage Charles River Laboratories to leverage Logica, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform offering from Flagship-founded Valo Health, to identify advanceable small molecule leads.
Logica is designed to translate biological insights into preclinical assets using Valo’s Opal Computational Platform and Charles River’s capabilities in drug discovery and preclinical development, and has just been used to identify a product candidate for different forms of lupus and other autoimmune indications with unmet needs.
Paul Biondi, president of Pioneering Medicines and managing partner at Flagship Pioneering, said: “Autoimmune diseases impose a substantial health burden on patients, and ongoing unmet need in the management of these conditions is driving a strong demand for more effective, safer and more personalised treatment options.
“Through the power of our unique partnership model with Pfizer, we will leverage Logica to help address this gap with a promising novel approach to identifying disease-modifying candidate molecules that could positively impact the current treatment landscape for these complex and diverse conditions.”
The agreement represents the sixth collaboration signed under a broader strategic partnership between Pfizer and Flagship, after the companies announced programmes with Flagship’s ProFound Therapeutics, Quotient Therapeutics, Montai Therapeutics and Ampersand Biomedicines.
Pfizer and Flagship [announced](https://pmlive.com/pharma_news/pfizer_and_flagship_pioneering_sign_drug_discovery_partnership_worth_up_to_7bn_1495031/) the original collaboration worth $7bn in 2023, noting that they were aiming to accelerate the development of innovative medicines.
As part of the wider agreement, the companies aim to invest in and develop a new pipeline of up to ten programmes for areas including internal medicine, oncology, infectious diseases and immunology, according to the 2023 announcement.