The combined company will advance wholly owned Immunology & Inflammation (I&I) pipeline led by Phase 1 NRF2 agonist MTAI-1025, and continue partnering across therapeutic areas
LEXINGTON, Mass. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#DrugDiscovery—Valo Health, Inc. (“Valo”) and Montai Therapeutics today announced a merger to form a leading drug discovery platform powered by human evidence. By uniting Valo’s AI-enabled human causal biology and predictive chemistry capabilities with Montai’s proven chemistry platform and clinical-stage immunology and inflammation (I&I) pipeline, the combined company will have expanded discovery capabilities, data, and models to develop new medicines for novel and hard-to-drug biology. Brian Alexander, MD, MPH, CEO of Valo and CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering, will lead the combined company, which will retain the Valo Health name.
“Valo and Montai were founded on the belief that human evidence should guide every step of drug discovery. This is particularly important in complex, heterogeneous areas like immunology, where a broad diagnosis can have many underlying disease mechanisms,” said Alexander. “Together, we can apply human evidence from target to molecule to patient, with the goal of improving translation from discovery to medicines for a wide range of diseases.”
Valo will integrate complementary discovery chemistry engines to access an unparalleled source of potential drugs, apply Valo’s human causal biology platform to target and patient selection, and advance a pipeline of both wholly owned and partnered programs. Most recently, Montai initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial of MTAI-1025, a novel oral NRF2 agonist being developed for ulcerative colitis. Valo will also advance additional programs targeting validated I&I disease pathways with near-term development milestones, including Montai’s oral STAT6 inhibitor for atopic dermatitis and other type 2 inflammatory diseases. Valo’s established biopharma partnerships in cardiometabolic disease and neurodegenerative diseases also will continue.
“This merger creates a single company with complementary platforms, a growing pipeline, established biopharma partnerships, and a clear path to its next stage of growth,” continued Alexander. “Valo and Montai share a core philosophy that human evidence should drive drug discovery, making this a compelling opportunity to bring complementary technology and programs together while maintaining momentum across the portfolio.”
“Montai was built to harness AI to discover and develop new oral medicines from a vast, underexplored chemical space with known human exposure. We’ve proven the platform works, successfully advancing multiple differentiated development candidates for clinically validated targets historically intractable for small molecules,” said Margo Georgiadis, co-founder and CEO of Montai and CEO-Partner of Flagship Pioneering. “Joining Valo allows us to apply our platform to more targets across I&I and broader therapeutic areas as well as ensuring the right targeted patient populations for our programs.”
Both companies were founded within the Flagship Pioneering ecosystem, sharing a common scientific approach that positions the combined company to integrate quickly and keep its programs moving without disruption. Georgiadis will stay on as an advisor to support the transition across programs and platform integration.
About Valo Health
Valo is redefining drug discovery and development through its AI-enabled human causal biology and closed loop chemistry platforms. Valo uses AI to understand disease causality, identify patient subtypes across heterogeneous diseases, and pinpoint novel drug targets. The Company’s closed loop chemistry platform enables rapid development of potential molecules from trillions of starting points. Valo’s approach aims to identify more impactful drug targets and small molecule therapeutics, faster, and with greater precision than traditional R&D methods. The Company works with leading global pharmaceutical partners, including Novo Nordisk and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in addition to advancing its own pipeline. Valo was founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2019. Follow us on LinkedIn and X.
About Montai Therapeutics
Montai is harnessing AI to decode vast, untapped diverse chemistry to develop breakthrough oral medicines that can address persistent unmet patient needs in chronic inflammatory disease. With the CONECTA® platform, Montai has built the world’s leading foundation models for decoding the complex language between nature’s bioactive chemistry and human biology – supercharging the drug discovery process with unprecedented predictability and optionality to repeatedly develop potent, exquisitely selective drug candidates with a strong safety profile for long term chronic dosing.
Montai’s pipeline of novel oral medicines focuses on historically hard-to-drug transcription factors and biologic replacements in inflammation and immunology. Its lead program, MTAI-1025, is a once daily oral NRF2 agonist in clinical development for ulcerative colitis. Montai was founded in Flagship Labs in 2019. For more information, please visit www.montai.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
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