Beeline Medicines emerged from stealth Wednesday with plans to develop “precision therapies” for immune diseases, nearly a year after its backer Bain Capital teamed up with Bristol Myers Squibb to give five of the pharma’s experimental medicines a new home.
Beeline’s pipeline is led by the licensed drug afimetoran, a daily oral treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus, a form of lupus, that targets a pair of receptor proteins which are responsible for regulating the immune system. At Bristol Myers, the drug had already been tested in a Phase 1b trial in a different form of lupus. A Phase 2 study is underway and is expected to be completed in the second half of this year, after which Beeline plans to launch “a pivotal development program.”
Behind it is a drug candidate in early testing for atopic dermatitis and lupus, as well as a once-daily oral TYK2-inhibitor in plaque psoriasis that Beeline says has potential in “rare immunological diseases.” Beeline additionally has two other preclinical assets from Bristol Myers aimed at the proteins IL-8 and IL-10, but did not reveal specific diseases the drugs will target.
Bain backed Beeline with a $300 million Series A round that the company says will carry it into late-stage clinical development.
Leading the company is Saqib Islam, an industry veteran who formerly served as CEO of the Pfizer spinout SpringWorks Therapeutics, a company with two drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration and was acquired by Merck KGaA for almost $4 billion last year. Prior to SpringWorks, Islam sat on the board of directors at ARS Pharmaceuticals and was the chief business officer for messenger RNA vaccine maker Moderna.
Beeline’s executive team includes several other veterans of SpringWorks, Nimbus Therapeutics and OrbiMed.
Bain is known for launching several biotechs by seeding them with the venture capital needed to get up and running, while establishing early partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies.
Previously, it had backed neuroscience drug developer Cerevel Therapeutics, which AbbVie eventually bought for almost $9 billion. Another Bain company, Aiolos Bio, brought in immune drugs through a China licensing deal and was acquired by GSK.
Additional biotechs launched by Bain include Timberlyne Therapeutics and Areteia Therapeutics.
