Dive Brief:
- A new startup run by veterans of BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Escient Pharmaceuticals says it will use artificial intelligence to move more quickly and effectively in developing rare disease therapies.
- The company, Mendra, launched after raising $82 million in a Series A financing led by OrbiMed, 8VC and 5AM Ventures. The money will be used to acquire assets and begin development, Mendra said Thursday.
- AI will be used to speed up the entire process of drug development and marketing, Mendra said. That includes identification of patients who are most likely to be helped by a new medicine, enrollment for clinical trials and planning for global commercialization.
Dive Insight:
Mendra’s investors are banking on the promise of AI technology as well as the experience of the new company’s leaders in the tricky area of rare disease drug development. In addition to the normal risk associated with bringing an experimental medicine to market, companies focused on rare diseases have to balance tiny patient populations with the need to make a profit.
BioMarin is one of the larger biopharmaceutical companies built around rare diseases. And while BioMarin has had its stumbles, it has also forged a path to sell eight different medicines and offered life-changing benefits for patients who previously had little hope of recovery.
Mendra CEO Joshua Grass worked at BioMarin from 2002 to 2017, helping to build the company’s portfolio. He later served as CEO at Modis Therapeutics and then Escient, both of which were acquired.
Grass is joined at Mendra by Jeff Ajer, who previously served as chief commercial officer at BioMarin. Lalarukh Haris Shaikh, formerly an executive vice president at Palantir Technologies, and Gregory Balani, who headed up business development at Escient, round out the leadership team.
The company is debuting as U.S. officials put particular attention on rare disease therapies. In November, the Food and Drug Administration outlined a new pathway designed to speed up development of bespoke drug treatments. The regulatory framework has already spurred the formation of at least one company, Aurora Therapeutics, which launched in January.
