JIMCO Life Sciences Fund & Abdul Latif Jameel Health participate in Cellarity US$ 123 million Series B funding to pioneer a new approach to drug discovery
- Cellarity launched in 2017, within Flagship Labs to create drugs which treat disease by changing the way cells behave, rather than targeting specific molecular targets
- Founded in 2020, Abdul Latif Jameel Health was created as a response to the ongoing global disparity in access to modern medical care, most notably across emerging economies of the developing world
- The JIMCO Life Sciences Fund, is a dedicated fund of the Jameel Investment Management Company actively investing in innovative, early-stage and breakthrough ventures and technology, aiming to positively shape the future of health.
The Jameel Investment Management Company (JIMCO), the global investment arm of the Jameel Family, confirmed that it is one of the investors in the recent US$ 123 million Series B funding round for Cellarity – an American life sciences company founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2017, to develop a new method of drug discovery targeting cell behavior.
The contribution to the round from JIMCO’s dedicated JIMCO Life Sciences Fund, sits alongside those from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, The Baupost Group, Banque Pictet together with other investors, and Flagship Pioneering. This initial investment is part of the ongoing strategic vision in collaboration with Abdul Latif Jameel Health to pursue targeted Investments in breakthrough thinking and emergent health technologies that will enable more globally inclusive healthcare through accelerating access to modern medical therapies for those who need it most.
Akram Bouchenaki, Chief Executive Officer, Abdul Latif Jameel Health, said:
“Our mission is to partner and support innovators within the medical world that are disrupting existing practices and pushing for wider availability of healthcare throughout the world.
“The synergy with Cellarity and their breakthrough thinking are clear to Abdul Latif Jameel Health team, and our contribution to helping pioneer this new approach to drug discovery is aligned with the values of our business and the Jameel family.”
Cellarity’s medicines are developed to address disease at the level of the cell and are not aimed at single molecular targets, the approach pursued in many traditional drug discoveries.
“We are entering a new era of network biology with the ability to deeply understand cellular processes and to create medicines with much more predictability and intentionality,” said Fabrice Chouraqui, CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering and CEO, Cellarity. “Cellarity’s platform, combining biology, computation and technology represents a dramatic rearchitecting of the current drug discovery paradigm toward this cell-centric approach.”