Some people set a goal of losing weight in the new year, but if you’re Bob Langer and Omid Farokhzad, it’s apparently time to start another new biotech company.
The prolific biotech entrepreneurs (Langer is from MIT, while Farokhzad is at Harvard Medical School), along with colleague Stephen Lippard of MIT, said today they have come together to start another new company called Blend Therapeutics in Watertown, MA. Langer and Farokhzad, who previously put their heads together for Bind Biosciences and Selecta Biosciences, now hope to come up with novel combinations of medicines that they say should “target distinct disease pathways with optimal efficacy and safety.” Flagship Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and NanoDimension have invested $2.8 million to start Blend, according to a report in FierceBiotech.
The company plans to hire about a dozen people this year, and will grow “methodically” until it is mature enough to hire a top-tier CEO, FierceBiotech said. Farokhzad told the industry news site that Blend could have raised more money, but opted instead to raise a smaller sum, create some value, and then raise more money. The initial plan, Farokhzad said, is to focus on treatments for cancer, inflammation, pain, and infectious diseases.
