CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/
-- Flagship Pioneering, a unique life sciences
innovation enterprise, today announced the launch of Ring
Therapeutics, an early-stage biotechnology company developing
first-in-class gene therapies using a new viral vector platform
based on its groundbreaking work on the human commensal virome.
Ring's technology promises to address many of the limitations of
current DNA and gene therapies, such as limited access to diverse
tissues, inability to redose, risk of genomic integration, and poor
tolerability. Ring's founding and continued development are
resourced by an initial capital commitment of $50 million from Flagship Pioneering.
A Powerful and Intrinsic Biology
The human commensal virome is a collection of recently
uncovered DNA sequences of viral origin that exist as episomal DNA,
alongside the 23 chromosomes of the human genome. This human
extrachromosomal genome is intrinsic to human biology; it is
highly prevalent in the population, ubiquitous throughout the body,
persistent and nonpathogenic. Current viral DNA therapy platforms
(such as adeno-associated virus, or AAV) are not effective in some
patients, because they often induce a strong immune response that
prevents the administration or re-administration of these vectors.
This limits the applicability of such platforms to the treatment of
many diseases. Ring has discovered thousands of commensal viruses
throughout the human body that coexist with our immune system. The
company plans to use these viruses to generate a wide array of
tissue-targeted, redosable vectors for gene therapy.
"With Ring, we are truly forging new ground by pioneering an
entirely new category of DNA medicines based on nature," said
Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., founder and
CEO of Flagship Pioneering, and cofounder and chairman of Ring
Therapeutics.
Anellovectorâ„¢ Platform: A Pioneering Platform
Ring Therapeutics was founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2017
when the firm's entrepreneurial scientists asked: What if we
could uncover and harness commensal viruses to deliver nucleic acid
therapeutics safely and repeatedly? Led by Ring's founding CEO
and Flagship Pioneering partner Avak
Kahvejian, Ph.D., and founding head of innovation and
Flagship senior associate Erica
Weinstein, Ph.D., a team of entrepreneurial scientists
discovered thousands of anelloviruses in a diverse set of tissues,
and uncovered their unique biology. With this understanding, Ring
is developing Anellovector therapeutics that leverage the inherent
properties of the commensal virome to address significant unmet
medical needs.
"We believe that Anellovector therapeutics represent the future
of DNA medicines," said Avak
Kahvejian, Ph.D., partner at Flagship Pioneering and
founding CEO of Ring Therapeutics. "The underlying biology of the
commensal virome, its diversity, and the fact that it has
co-evolved with us over millennia, gives us a revolutionary new
insight from which we can develop safe and efficacious medicines
using our proprietary platform."
Over two years, Ring has put together a discovery and
development platform and is now building a rich portfolio of
therapeutic candidates that take advantage of the ability of
Anellovector therapeutics to (i) overcome pre-existing
immunological barriers, (ii) target sites of disease with cellular
and tissue specificity, and (iii) redose patients as required. The
company is targeting therapeutic areas including genetic disorders,
ophthalmology, oncology, metabolic disorders, hematology, central
nervous system disorders, and inflammatory diseases.
Key Management
Rahul Singhvi, Sc.D., operating
partner at Flagship Pioneering, has been appointed as president of
Ring Therapeutics. Until recently, Dr. Singhvi was the chief
operating officer of Takeda's Global Vaccine Business Unit where he
led a 300-person organization. Prior to Takeda, he was president
and CEO of Novavax, Inc.(NVAX), a Nasdaq-listed clinical stage
vaccine company. Dr. Singhvi began his professional career at Merck
& Co., where he held several positions in R&D and
manufacturing. He received his master's and doctorate degrees in
chemical engineering from MIT and an
MBA from the Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania.
"I am excited to lead Ring Therapeutics to unleash the potential
of its Anellovector technology," Dr. Singhvi said. "Anellovectors
are the first real alternative to AAV-based vectors and have the
potential to substantially expand the patient population that can
benefit from the promising field of DNA medicines."
Roger J. Hajjar, M.D., has been
appointed as the head of R&D at Ring Therapeutics. Dr. Hajjar
is an internationally renowned scientific leader in the field of
cardiac gene therapy, having led first-in-human gene therapy trials
in patients with heart failure. Until earlier this year, he was the
director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, and the Arthur
& Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine, at Mount Sinai School of
Medicine in New York. He received
his M.D. from Harvard Medical School
and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology.
He completed his training in cardiology and heart failure/cardiac
transplantation as well as research fellowships at Massachusetts
General Hospital. He has authored over 500 peer-reviewed
publications and has received numerous awards for his achievements
in the field of cardiovascular medicine.
"The Anellovector platform brings a totally novel therapeutic
perspective to the field of DNA medicine. With their powerful
biological characteristics and vast diversity, Anellovectors have
the promise of addressing the unmet needs of many devastating
diseases," Dr. Hajjar said.
About Ring Therapeutics
Ring Therapeutics is a multiproduct platform company focused on
discovering and developing Anellovectorâ„¢ therapeutics to unlock the
full potential of DNA medicines. Founded by Flagship Pioneering,
Ring is developing the first redosable and targetable DNA therapy
platform by harnessing the biology of the human commensal virome.
The company is expanding the applications of DNA therapy beyond
gene replacement, enabling a much wider array of modalities and
mechanisms to treat previously inaccessible diseases. For more
information, please visit www.ringtx.com.
About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops
first-in-category life sciences companies to transform human health
and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through
its Flagship Labs unit, applied a unique hypothesis-driven
innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific
ventures, resulting in over $30 billion in aggregate
value. To date, Flagship is backed by more than $3.3
billion of aggregate capital commitments, of which
over $1.9 billion has been deployed toward the founding
and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $10
billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The
current Flagship ecosystem comprises 39 transformative
companies, including Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA), Denali
Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences
(NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics, Indigo Agriculture,
Kaleido Biosciences (NASDAQ: KLDO), Moderna
(NASDAQ: MRNA), Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY), Seres
Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), and Syros Pharmaceuticals
(NASDAQ: SYRS). To learn more about Flagship Pioneering,
please visit our website: www.FlagshipPioneering.com.
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SOURCE Flagship Pioneering