Arena BioWorks launches as self-sustaining centre of excellence to streamline drug development

The co-founders of Arena BioWorks think the traditional drug discovery pipeline, from grant-funded academic work to venture capital-backed company creation, is plagued with pitfalls that could be slowing down much-needed new therapeutics. That’s why the trio – who each boast long resumes of biotech investing and scientific discovery – launched the biomedical research institute Friday with $500 million and a different model of completely privately funded drug development, from idea to in-human readiness. 

Arena will be helmed by CEO Stuart Schreiber, who co-founded the Broad Institute in addition to 14 biotechs, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Ariad Pharmaceuticals. Steve Pagliuca, the former Bain Capital co-chair, will serve as the institute’s chair. Tom Cahill will take the role of institute representative; as the founder and managing partner of Newpath Partners, he launched over a dozen companies and remains actively involved in many, including Myeloid Therapeutics and Prime Medicine. 

Discovery, company creation under one roof

At the Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters, “discovery and company creation will occur seamlessly under one roof,” the biomedical institute said in a statement.

Arena will focus on disease areas with the most unmet need, such as neurology, oncology, immunology, and ageing. According to the institute, when its human biology approach elucidates a disease mechanism, it will form a company to translate that insight to the clinic. 

"Arena's single source of funding frees our scientists from the typical short-term cycles of grant and venture capital funding,” Schreiber said. “Our aim is to accelerate progression from deep mechanistic human biology to biotech-enabled drug development."

In addition to biological research for particular diseases, Arena will also advance platform technologies including chemoproteomics, molecular glue and covalent drug discovery, high-throughput screening, protein and antibody engineering, gene and epigenetic editing, gene and cell therapies, drug delivery, and data science.

Hopes to be self-sustaining

Thanks to its cyclical private funding model, Pagliuca expects Arena to be a “self-sustaining centre of excellence” – when one of its companies turns profitable, part of that revenue will flow back to the institute.

“There's never been a greater opportunity for scientific entrepreneurs to make a difference for patients. Arena is launching at a threshold moment in biotech, with imminent discoveries poised to revolutionise medical care," Cahill said.

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