Flagship Pioneering Unveils Montai Health to Treat and Preempt Chronic Disease Afflicting Two Billion People Worldwide

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Dec 13, 2022, 07:00 ET

Margo Georgiadis, Former CEO of Ancestry and President of Americas at Google, is Appointed Chief Executive Officer

The Company's CONECTA™ Platform Couples Advances in the Digitization of Natural Chemistry and Human Biology with Powerful Computational Tools to Rapidly and Repeatedly Identify Drug Candidates

After Three Years of Development, Flagship Commits an Initial $50 Million to Montai

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Pioneering, the bioplatform innovation company, today unveiled Montai Health, a company unlocking the power of nature with its CONECTA™ platform to create medicines that treat and preempt a broad range of chronic diseases. Flagship has initially committed $50 million to support the development of Montai's platform and its initial pipeline of new medicines. The company also announced that Margo Georgiadis, MBA, Flagship Pioneering CEO-Partner, who previously served as the CEO of Ancestry and President of the Americas at Google, is leading Montai as CEO.

Montai is building the world's first Anthromolecule™ Bioactivity Atlas founded on a privileged class of molecules with a long history of safe, chronic human consumption. There are more than 100,000 known molecules that humans have consumed through foods, supplements, and herbal medicines, including 40 molecules already found in well-known medications with a history of safe long-term use for diseases such as Parkinson's, asthma, and heart disease. Montai's CONECTA platform identifies and maps Anthromolecule bioactivity on disease pathways, enabling the rapid development of therapeutics that can potently modulate disease and are safe, effective, and accessible for earlier intervention and long-term use.

"With Montai, we are asking the question – what if the key to preempting or treating chronic disease exists within molecules we already consume," said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Montai Health and Founder and CEO, Flagship Pioneering. "Montai's platform leverages rapidly growing advancements in the digitization of natural chemistry and human biology coupled with powerful computational tools for linking chemical structure and bioactivity. We believe that Montai unlocks the tremendous untapped potential to bring safer, more tolerable therapeutics to patients more quickly than ever before."

"To improve health outcomes for people living with chronic disease, we must reset the current drug development paradigm and find ways to intervene as early possible with safe, long-term solutions," said Ara Darzi, M.D., Chairman of Montai Health and Chair, Flagship Pioneering Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative. "Margo's experience leading some of the world's most cutting-edge companies focused on data, technology, science, and consumer-centric healthcare approaches makes her well positioned to realize these bold aspirations for Montai."

"More than two billion people globally are affected by one or more chronic diseases, creating an unsustainable healthcare system and societal burden," said Margo Georgiadis, Co-Founder and CEO of Montai Health and CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering. "We are taking a unique human-centric approach, building the world's first comprehensive Anthromolecule Bioactivity Atlas, to rapidly and repeatedly develop safe, efficacious, and accessible medicines to improve health outcomes for as many people as possible."

Along with Noubar Afeyan and Margo Georgiadis, Montai's founding team includes Flagship's Ignacio Martinez, board member, Hok Hei Tam, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer, David Kolesky, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer, and Michael Wong, Ph.D., Head of Program Operations & Strategy.

About Montai Health

Montai Health is focused on unlocking the power of nature to create Anthromolecule™ medicines that treat and preempt a broad range of human diseases, with an initial focus on inflammatory and autoimmune disease. Montai's CONECTA™ platform comprehensively maps Anthromolecule bioactivity across pathways that drive disease. The CONECTA platform leverages rapid and ever-growing advancements in the digitization of natural chemistry and human biology coupled with powerful computational tools for linking chemical structure and bioactivity. This confluence of biotechnologies enables Montai to build a powerful, one-of-a-kind discovery platform focused on creating safe, effective, and more human-centric medicines than ever before. Montai Health was founded in Flagship Labs in 2019. For more information, please visit www.montai.com.

About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $100 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $3.1 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $19 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 42 transformative companies, including Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Indigo Agriculture, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), and Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB).